Dear Reader:

As a child growing up …numbers were not my friend… early on reading and writing, history, and science captured my interest… but arithmetic sent me swirling with butterflies in my stomach.

I just never ” got it.” Unfortunately back then … fun activities, like dividing pizza pies or counting money correctly to provide an end of the year party… like I hear my grandchildren discuss today, were non-existent. Math, in my time, was just paper, pencil, and lots of erasing …mistake after mistake.

Today the butterflies are gone and I feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction each month paying my bills and dividing my savings by projected priorities. I can ” see” and understand numbers now.

Life experiences became my best teacher. I was terrified, after my divorce, the first time I had to figure out how to pay taxes, buy a car, apply for loans, pay mortgages, fill out college financial information for my children…but I discovered something important along the way…. people will help you when you are at your most vulnerable… they become your teachers. I was so fortunate to make new friends in the ” math world” of finances that had once seemed so alien to me.

Sometimes there is still that small child that wants to hide during a financial emergency … but more often than not, numbers no longer send me into paralysis mode. I know that I spent too many years worrying about numbers but they have proven to be my best friend.

I was given three years originally after my initial diagnosis of breast cancer and I left that ” dead-end” number behind well over a decade ago. I turned my life arithmetic answers over to God and so far… my personal arithmetic lesson has ” multipled.” I feel like I have been given more than my share of ‘ fish and loaves of bread’ watching my grandchildren grow.

So until tomorrow… we should all remember the 5 BY 5 Rule: If it is not going to matter in five years, Don’t spend more than five minutes being upset about it! Great Math Lesson!

Today is my favorite lesson -Winnie the Pooh