The Storage Room

What did I learn from my storage room? Deal with the past! Throw away what hinders! Hold on to what helps!

There is a mud nest on my front porch. Coach Murry said, "Keep those kind of birds around because they eat mosquitoes". Ya know, they will use just about anything mixed with that mud to hold a nest together. This is the second set of babies these parents have raised. A few years ago, I watched the first set of babies hatch and grow. Though, one of them never left the nest. Ya see, he was caught by a string and chained to his nest. I tried to rescue the little thing. I thought if I could wet the mud then maybe the string would loosen its grip on the bird's ankle. Nope! I just destroyed the nest and killed the baby bird. Bummer...

Well, another generation is here. And you are not gonna believe it, but a teenager bird is chained to that same nest. I've known about the captivity for about a week now. Do you think I'm gonna kill another bird and destroy another nest. No Way! After awhile, I couldn't stand it any longer. If I could possibly help this little guy then I had to take the risk. I took a rag in one hand and scissors in the other. After covering the bird, I carefully snipped the string. My kitty's were peering up at me, "Lunch!". I put him in the nest and he fell back out with another string restraining him. I repeated the process and he's free, but can he fly? I walked to the end of the sidewalk treasuring my little raggedy package. At the right time, I held open my hand and thrust it into the air. And away he went, wobbly, but he went...up, up, and away.

Lord, all I have is a faulty nest and filthy rags to offer You. The storage room? Yeah, well, I guess I do feel a little less captivated by the past. I'm free? Yeah, I'm free!

Down & Dirty

I had been dreading this project for over nine years. I knew it was there, but if I kept the door closed on it maybe it would go away. My storage room contained a lifetime of my memorabilia. If I wanted my house to be sanctified then this was the place to start. And start I did, on July 28th 2006. For an hour and a half in the cool of the morning, I trudged through memories, good and bad.

I found trinkets, letters, and clippings. You name it and I found it, stuff spanning over my lifetime. (Childhood, teen, college, single adult and married) Ugly stuff, pretty stuff, weird stuff, useful stuff, useless stuff, stuff I just wanted to forget and stuff I don't ever want to forget. What do you do with such stuff? I chunked most of it, charred a lot of it and cherished much of it. You mean a cozy chiminea fire in July? Yes!

There are videos and tapes that I wanted to stop playing in my mind. It could only help matters if I destroyed certain triggers that keep hitting the play buttons. And for that matter, I wanted to destroy evidence! I want the evidence of Christ to far outweigh the evidence of evil. I'm not who I used to be, thank God, I'm a new and clean creature in Christ. And by the way, so is my storage room after a month!

Corn Splat!!!

My house is soooo sanctified! NOT!!!

I wish that it were clean. One night I dropped a cob of corn on the floor. "Oh, I'm tired", I sweared, "I'll clean it up tomorrow." The morning came and I was still muttering, "I'm still tired, even more so than when I went to bed, if that could be possible." Yuck! Look at that caked spagetti on the stove top. Scrub a little harder...yawn...almost done...there. What did I just step in? What in the world is that? Crusty, yellow goop! I bend down to take a closer look, rag in hand. It will not come up! Euuuwwwwa, it's corn splat! I'll heat up this rag again and get after it...nope...won't budge. There, I'll leave a dripping hot rag sitting on top of it for awhile to soak and soften. Wow...now I wish I had dealt with the mess right when it happened. It's harder to clean up the longer I wait.

This little talk with myself is making a strong case for night-time meditation and prayer. I need to get my life straightened up before bed so that I can awake to a spic-n-span kitchen or I mean heart.

The Flying Pickle Jar

What do you use your empty pickle jars for? We recycle them as drinking glasses. They are my hubby's favorite. On March 2, 2005 an empty pickle jar came flying off of the second shelf of the cabinet as I grabbed a drinking glass, my favorite are the dainty one's from our shower. All I could do was slam the cabinet door to keep the jar from crashing to the floor. I slowly peeked into the cabinet to see the jar tottering happily on the first shelf right side up, safe and sound. I sighed! The thought crossed my mind about when a heated issue reaches up at me and I want to bolt off the shelf, then is when I need to quickly slam the door on it until I gain control and be reasonable. The tall glass of water is good and refreshing, as I take a gulp. And I didn't have to clean up any messes. The cup, my relationship, is 'still' in one piece.

Funny that I should reread this story from my journal on this day. Yesterday in the morning hours such an issue reached up at me... (Pause to answer the phone and another issue just flew into the picture) ...whew! I finally dealt with yesterday's pickle late last night. And now I must ease onto the next shelf for today's pickle. Thank you Lord for the pickles~I Love Pickles, kosher to be exact!