I hate clutter! All kinds of clutter! Clutter to my ears; clutter in my space, clutter in my
emotions, and clutter in my life!
I am a very organized person in about every aspect of existence. I require my house to
be orderly, my closets to be neat and tidy, my cabinets arranged for easy and ready
access to what I need when I need it. I also must have the radio, stereo and television
modulated so as not to offend my ears. I even require the interior of my car to be clean
and shining. Now, imagine this scenario: Guests! Including my husband's daughter
and his twin 5-year-old grandchildren.
We adore them and cherish them. We really do! However...
They come into my very neat home and promptly disorder EVERYTHING in it! I know
my passion for neatness makes it very hard to enjoy their company for who they really
are. Perhaps it's been too long since we have had little ones in our lives and have
become what I cringingly call "sedentary". Please, God, never let me be called
sedentary!
They never pick up after themselves and they leave toys, crumbs, and NOISE
everywhere! They are vivacious kids and never move at a normal pace, but rather in a
frenetic fashion. We had an old toy poodle that had cataracts so badly that he could
only see peripherally, and those movements threatened him; ergo, he would dash at
the twins, barking as though they were some foreign intruder about to harm his
"parents"! When either of the kids would sit on my lap, Frosty was immediately on top
of them trying to reclaim his place! Although hysterically funny on one hand, it's
confusing to my sense of order on the other.
The kids think that the normal range of voice is at 97 decibels! My ears' normal
desired range is about 30! Our dog, also offended by the height of the noise, was
constantly under foot trying to make out what the ruckus was about. Karen, their
opperendus guardiani has equally as strident a voice and she was constantly
shrieking at the twins to calm down! Is that oxymoronic behavior, or what!
Yet another disruption is my dear husband's behavior: he never picks up after
himself, never closes a drawer he opens, never closes a cupboard door. If he takes
milk from the fridge or a slice of bread from the loaf for a snack at the breakfast bar,
that is where they remain along with his dirty dishes.
I have a 10-gallon crock sitting by his recliner to stow the newspapers after he has
finished reading them. They wind up on the floor all around his chair. He wears
jogging shoes to his workplace and when he gets home, slips them off in front of his
chair and replaces them with his house slippers. The shoes reside there until he
needs them again to wear to work. If we happen to go out to breakfast or some other
event, both jogging shoes and slippers reside in front of his chair, later accompanied
by the dress shoes until he needs either pair again! When he brushes his teeth, he
never puts up his denture glass, toothbrush or bottle of mouthwash. Never does he
wipe the white marble counter of splatters and smudgy hand prints.
So you can see: I have a lot of disorder to contend with, but in the normal course of
living I try to assign a somewhat low priority to reminding him of all those offenses in
the name of harmony between the two of us.
Trying to find a way to cope with all this disruption ~ the clutter, the noise, disarray,
and frenetic activity, I remind myself of the more important things in my life: These are
the people whom I treasure in my life and want them to remain there. I try to consider
their lives lived away from me, or gone forever, and give a vast amount of latitude,
because I know that if they weren't in my life, I would be less of a person than I am
now and that would be more of a total disruption than I could bear.
When I think of the loved ones whom I have lost from my life permanently, I ask God to
forgive me for letting the CLUTTER I may have caused in their lives take away from
the total enjoyment of having them there. I do sorely miss them AND their clutter. I
guess what I am trying to say is that no matter how fixed we are in our routines and
desires, balanced with the vastly greater good we get from those loved ones near us,
we need to just live in the moment for the joy of the moment, and not let anything or
anyone take one iota of that precious gift from us; not even ourselves! ~ Betty
My 2¢ Worth
by Ferna Lary Mills
I honestly cannot read Betty's story this week without laughing, imagining her being so
"discombobulated". I have felt the same way myself at times, although I must admit I'm
not as neat and organized!
Betty's story reminds me of a plaque that states: The most important things in life
aren't "things". Times change, people change, things change. The things that are
important to us today, may not be as important tomorrow, and vice versa. But the one
thing we must always keep our focus on, is that God never changes. We should strive
to live a life that is pleasing to Him. A life that honors Him.
What will you leave behind when you move on from this life? A hundred years after
you are gone the things you left behind will pretty much all be forgotten. But the words
you said, the kindnesses you shared, the gentleness of your spirit and the love you
gave, will live on! It will live on in the lives of people you knew ... and it will live on in
YOU! ~ Ferna
emotions, and clutter in my life!
I am a very organized person in about every aspect of existence. I require my house to
be orderly, my closets to be neat and tidy, my cabinets arranged for easy and ready
access to what I need when I need it. I also must have the radio, stereo and television
modulated so as not to offend my ears. I even require the interior of my car to be clean
and shining. Now, imagine this scenario: Guests! Including my husband's daughter
and his twin 5-year-old grandchildren.
We adore them and cherish them. We really do! However...
They come into my very neat home and promptly disorder EVERYTHING in it! I know
my passion for neatness makes it very hard to enjoy their company for who they really
are. Perhaps it's been too long since we have had little ones in our lives and have
become what I cringingly call "sedentary". Please, God, never let me be called
sedentary!
They never pick up after themselves and they leave toys, crumbs, and NOISE
everywhere! They are vivacious kids and never move at a normal pace, but rather in a
frenetic fashion. We had an old toy poodle that had cataracts so badly that he could
only see peripherally, and those movements threatened him; ergo, he would dash at
the twins, barking as though they were some foreign intruder about to harm his
"parents"! When either of the kids would sit on my lap, Frosty was immediately on top
of them trying to reclaim his place! Although hysterically funny on one hand, it's
confusing to my sense of order on the other.
The kids think that the normal range of voice is at 97 decibels! My ears' normal
desired range is about 30! Our dog, also offended by the height of the noise, was
constantly under foot trying to make out what the ruckus was about. Karen, their
opperendus guardiani has equally as strident a voice and she was constantly
shrieking at the twins to calm down! Is that oxymoronic behavior, or what!
Yet another disruption is my dear husband's behavior: he never picks up after
himself, never closes a drawer he opens, never closes a cupboard door. If he takes
milk from the fridge or a slice of bread from the loaf for a snack at the breakfast bar,
that is where they remain along with his dirty dishes.
I have a 10-gallon crock sitting by his recliner to stow the newspapers after he has
finished reading them. They wind up on the floor all around his chair. He wears
jogging shoes to his workplace and when he gets home, slips them off in front of his
chair and replaces them with his house slippers. The shoes reside there until he
needs them again to wear to work. If we happen to go out to breakfast or some other
event, both jogging shoes and slippers reside in front of his chair, later accompanied
by the dress shoes until he needs either pair again! When he brushes his teeth, he
never puts up his denture glass, toothbrush or bottle of mouthwash. Never does he
wipe the white marble counter of splatters and smudgy hand prints.
So you can see: I have a lot of disorder to contend with, but in the normal course of
living I try to assign a somewhat low priority to reminding him of all those offenses in
the name of harmony between the two of us.
Trying to find a way to cope with all this disruption ~ the clutter, the noise, disarray,
and frenetic activity, I remind myself of the more important things in my life: These are
the people whom I treasure in my life and want them to remain there. I try to consider
their lives lived away from me, or gone forever, and give a vast amount of latitude,
because I know that if they weren't in my life, I would be less of a person than I am
now and that would be more of a total disruption than I could bear.
When I think of the loved ones whom I have lost from my life permanently, I ask God to
forgive me for letting the CLUTTER I may have caused in their lives take away from
the total enjoyment of having them there. I do sorely miss them AND their clutter. I
guess what I am trying to say is that no matter how fixed we are in our routines and
desires, balanced with the vastly greater good we get from those loved ones near us,
we need to just live in the moment for the joy of the moment, and not let anything or
anyone take one iota of that precious gift from us; not even ourselves! ~ Betty
My 2¢ Worth
by Ferna Lary Mills
I honestly cannot read Betty's story this week without laughing, imagining her being so
"discombobulated". I have felt the same way myself at times, although I must admit I'm
not as neat and organized!
Betty's story reminds me of a plaque that states: The most important things in life
aren't "things". Times change, people change, things change. The things that are
important to us today, may not be as important tomorrow, and vice versa. But the one
thing we must always keep our focus on, is that God never changes. We should strive
to live a life that is pleasing to Him. A life that honors Him.
What will you leave behind when you move on from this life? A hundred years after
you are gone the things you left behind will pretty much all be forgotten. But the words
you said, the kindnesses you shared, the gentleness of your spirit and the love you
gave, will live on! It will live on in the lives of people you knew ... and it will live on in
YOU! ~ Ferna
| Clutter, clutter everywhere, and not one spot to think! © Betty Sue Eaton |
| A Christian Grief Ministry |
Life After Loss |