A Keeper

We live in a time when professional organizers are very popular. Stay lean and mean. Travel light. If you haven’t used something for a year – throw it out. My wife is a saver, like her mom who grew up in the depression and her mom who raised three girls in the depression. Grandma would wash aluminum foil, eat around the bruises on a pear (not just toss it) and sew most of their clothes from scratch. I on the other hand clean out my closet by tossing it all except my one pair of really broken in pajama pants. I got this email from Cheri Kelley, MSW. LSW. It made me think twice about what I value and what society deems valuable.

A Keeper

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a housedress, lawn mower in one hand, and dish-towel in the other. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away...never to return. So...While we have it... it's best we love it...And care for it...And fix it when it's broken..... And heal it when it's sick.

This is true...For marriage...And old cars...And children with bad report cards...Dogs and cats with bad hips... And aging parents...And grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with.

There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special...And so, we keep them close!

Good friends are like stars...You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com