When we moved into the neighborhood we currently live in there were a lot of older people living here. I talked to some of them as I would walk the kids to and from school and got to know some of them, some better than others. One lady was talking to me about her coffee cups one day and how she liked them. She described them to me. You see, when an elder would pass on their children would have a garage sale and get rid of their stuff.
When my paternal grandparents moved and downsized their possessions, grandma sent me some things for the kitchen and grandma Gentry's well worn Bible. The Bible had passages underlined and notes throughout of personal reminders. I was grateful for the Bible but I was puzzled about the kitchen items grandma sent. I shrugged and put them in my kitchen, then every time I would use them, I'd think of grandma. That's when the wisdom of what grandma had done occurred to me. She knew I would use them and think of her, so I would frequent garage sales in the neighborhood when someone passed so that I could buy something for the kitchen that reminded me of them. I have those infamous coffee cups, even the one with the broken handle.
I wondered if her children knew how much she liked them when they sold them to me.
Today I have London Fog carpet that was produced in the month of May on my living and family room floors, instead of cleaning the floor when they laid it, I got the worst of the mess up and put some essential oil on the rest to take away the smell from where I'd potty trained numerous pets, mostly citronella and lemon thinking that one day John will trade me in on a newer model and deny me the home that I'd prayed for all my life and finally have now. I have Biscayne oak in the master bedroom layed in a zig-zag pattern but I cleaned the floor very well for the tile and used the same essential oil underneath. I have a grown dog that insists at times on going in the house, she's housebroken but afraid of the water so if it rains outside she stays in and once in awhile she gets mad at me and has a temper fit and will use the floor. For this reason both the carpet and the tile are pet proof as is the padding under the carpet.
I accessorize my house to remind me of my life and I wonder if anything ever happens to me, will my children make some radical changes? I suppose it won't matter to me by then and if they have a garage sale my stuff won't matter to those who buy it. Life slips through our fingers anyway, we are supposed to be more important than our possessions but I'm not certain the world sees it that way sometimes.
Thinking about things like this makes me melancholy but I can't help it, I still think about how brief life is and how fragile. I also think about how little control I've had over my own life in comparison to other people who seem to have planned theirs out and lived life deliberately as they chose. I only hope I've left other people better off than when I found them. Jesus said we are to be servants. He also said the last would be first and the first would be last. I guess that's why I don't care about power, money or prestige. People desire those things for the wrong reason and often harm one another trying to acquire those things. Life is a test and the Lord knows who we are in our hearts by how we respond to life.
Just look at Israel living in the epicenter of her enemies and doing so deliberately. I heard that a Jewish man once said that other people say the Lord gave Israel tasks in life because he trusted them as a nation, then the man sorrowfully said that he wished sometimes that God did not trust them so much. I don't think I have to explain why he said that, a person would have had to be living under a rock to have missed the meaning. Or completely have slept through history class and never watch the news. I think Job probably at the end of his test (Satan's test, not God's) would have said the same thing.
