This particular tragedy has been quite a common occurrence in the Newman house for 20+ years. Yes, this coincides with the time our first child was born. Along with the unending joy that children bring, came unending broken dishes, knick-knacks, van windows, and now, the beautiful knob on my lovely new teapot.
Her name is Amber. She is 15, and I love her bunches. She has many gifts, but gracefulness is unfortunately not one of them. Many items have fallen by the wayside by her hand, or foot. She claims that she only scooted my teapot over, and somehow the lid jumped off which broke the knob. The lid wasn't completely broken, just the center knob.
I must admit, I wasn't pleased. My pot was no longer flawless, and wasn't quite as pretty as before, with a big hole in the middle of the lid. At least it still had a lid, I consoled myself. That is, until a week later. The same aforementioned lovely daughter bumped a plastic tub into my teapot on the counter, and BAM! The lid was history. A million pieces. Bummer. At least I still have my teapot, I consoled myself. So far, that is.
There is no guarantee in this house that anything breakable will remain unbroken. In fact, the Newman Law of Glass is that if it can be broken, it probably will. Apparently, it is one of the thorns I have to endure. It is also the reason we buy our dishes at Goodwill now, and why I don't care, and in fact embrace, the truth that none of our plates match. If you only pay .99 for a plate, and you have no matching sets, you don't care if one gets broken.
See? No matches!
All of this to say I have learned to hold my possessions loosely. A lesson we all need to learn, and God used lots of broken items to reinforce the point to me. Maybe I needed it. My mother has a lot of nice things all over her house that need to be dusted and NOT BROKEN. That is what I grew up with, so I probably have a gene that has a tendency to enjoy things too much. I'm pretty sure that gene left the building crying several years ago, and that's okay.
This world is not the end of everything; the best is yet to come in Eternity. We can't take any of it with us, so it's best to learn to hold loosely to our "stuff" now. Personally, I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey of organizing, cleaning, reducing, giving stuff away, seeing just how little we can get along with. I hate clutter with a passion, and with five people in this small house, it can be very challenging to avoid it. We have done pretty well, though, and continue to sift through everything as needed. It is so freeing!! That's the best part.
Clutter is oppressive. Open, organized, uncluttered spaces feel like a breath of fresh air. It is marvelous, and I recommend it highly! Even the baby step of spending a few minutes at a time going through problem areas makes a huge difference. I like the tip that in going through your closet, if you wouldn't buy it at the store right now, get rid of it. Most of us have so many clothes and shoes, we can't even get to everything to see what we have, much less ever wear all of it.
Hold loosely; love people, not things. It's a good lesson. As for my teapot, my husband said that someday in the not too distant future he would buy me another one and the wrecking crew can use the "old" one. Since it is still functional, I'll probably postpone that for quite awhile, unless the rest of it gets broken. Maybe I'll leave it on the edge of the counter....no, just kidding.
Blessings,
Debbie, Home at Serenity Springs
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