Feeling Needed

Wednesday I was feeling as if I had no purpose or direction. My gym buddy Katheryn was on a cruse and I had no one to play with.

Thursday my friend Beverly Anderson came to visit for a few hours she needed company more than I did. We have both had grown children die. She has no one to talk to concerning her dead daughter.

Friday I went to the gym and met Elizabeth. She is 60 years old in a bad marriage and needs a friend. She is a born again Christan but not active and some where in distant time she was baptised Mormon. I counseled her for about 45 min. She wants to come to church with me. We exchanged phone numbers and plan to keep in touch.

On the way home from the gym I stopped at the 99 cent store. There I ran into Georgia Hoover I don't know her married name. Her mother Yvonne is in a rest home and not a happy camper. She will not get better and is being difficult. Georgia is in tears trying to please her. Once more I was listening and giving counsel for another 45 min.

Life has given me experience in all three fields and an opportunity to serve others. It was a good day.

Flowers or Weeds

Monday is the worst day for trash pick up! It begins at 6:00 am and gets to my house about 6:15 am. I have two containers, one for trash and one for recycles. They are collected by different trucks at different times. The four missionaries in the apartment are wonderful, but they usually but their trash out after trash pick up. To be helpful and make up for this miss timing today he brought the trash bin back into the yard. That was a nice thing to do, but he also brought back the recycle bin that had not been emptied! I am caught between crying and laughing. It has happened before and will happen again because when I train one group there is a re-assignment and I get an untrained group. I once read a poem that in part said, "count the flowers in stead of the weeds, count your blessings in stead of your needs" Having the missionaries in my home is a blessing and the fact that the trash bin had already been emptied is a blessing, in the past both bins have been brought in still full!

Deliver Me From Clutter

I needed help so I contacted a clutter professional. For $80.00 an hour she would de-clutter my bank account faster than my house! So I decided to read a borrowed book on the subject and help myself for free. After all if I brought it in I can pitch it out. The process just requires a change of direction a U-turn in my thinking.

My first attack was on the junk/key drawer in the kitchen. My cat helped by fishing items out of the drawer and dropping them into the trash can that was under the drawer. I threw out door keys to locks that had been replaced years ago, loose screws, bolts, and nails; partial packages of old birthday candles, L wrenches used to assemble ever piece of furniture I ever bought. A name tag for a dog that died four dogs ago. Old appointment cards from a doctor I haven't seen in several years, and several empty key chains.

I also found one nickle and four pennies, I considered that wages for my fifteen minuets work. It would have cost $20.00 to hire the professional to de-clutter the drawer. I'm already $20.09 ahead!

A brief rest and I was on the attack again. This time it was the refrigerator. I disposed of vegetables I found petrifying in the bottom of the vegetable bin; and jam jars with contents that had not been popular since my last diet many pounds ago. I charged on t0 the medicine cabinet. I threw out prescriptions older than four of my great grandchildren; I was drunk with power!

Staggering on to the small cupboard in the bathroom that held the over flow from the medicine cabinet. I threw out denture bond, no one in my house has dentures! I discarded rancid lotions and ointments, bandaids so old the wrappers were pealing off, medication to cure aliments that on one was suffering from, a package of refreshing deodorant wipes for men, there hasn't been a man in my house for years. I pitched out a toothbrush that no one claimed; it had been in the holder for many months. I threw out several used bars of soap to small to use but if stuck together would be usable again. Out went lots of old make-up that had accumulated and several jars of out dated beauty creams whose beauty secrets had eluded me. At this stage of life beauty cream will only work if it is retro active!

I have a paper shredder and have been working on my old income tax forms dating back forty years. I have many years of old cancelled checks with my signature on them that must be shredded to prevent forgery and theft. I have been working on the shredder and think I now have enough confetti for a New York type New Years eve parade.

My linen closet contains items that have been there so long I don't recognize them. Sweaters that I will never wear again or maybe never have; sheets to fit beds I no longer own, table cloths to fit a table I gave away fifteen years ago. Up on the top shelf are stored all the gift bags that have ever been given to me or anyone else that came to my home for a birthday of Christmas. I haven't forgotten them because they often slide out and hit me in the head when I open the cupboard doors.

In my kitchen and large pantry I have enough pots and pans to start a bakery. I have a variety of pie pans. I have cake pans for bunt cakes, angel food cakes, wedding cakes, cup cakes and sheet cakes. I also have several cookie sheet. I don't bake any more!

In the laundry room I have a nice work bench with a supply of useful house tools but it isn't user friendly because it is buried under a variety of materials left over from previous jobs. I have plumbing tools I can't use and a bucket of roofing tar left over from a long ago leak. I had a new roof installed and no longer worry about leaks. I had the house re-piped and re-wired seven years ago and still have pieces of copper pipe and electrical wire in my way. I have no use for either; I just want the space they occupy.

I own a good many yard tools and don't think I will be using then because I hate yard work. I have a wonderful gardener and wouldn't think about taking his job.

If am able to keep up this de-cluttering schedule I should be back on the job again in about another ten years.

Aunt Bettie and I were shopping at Costco and a sample of gum was being offered I took one and asked Bettie if she wanted one. She said gum would stick to her dentures. I assured her this was advertised as the kind that would not stick to her plate.

She took some and started to chew. Immediately she became a victim of false advertising and the gum stuck to the roof of her plate. Wishing to be helpful I gave her a tissue. She rubbed to on the gum and now had gum and tissue stuck to her plate.

We agreed that a good paste in the mouth was needed but disagreed on who needed it!

True Beauty

It has been said that beauty is only skin deep and ugly goes all the way to the bone. I say true beauty goes all the way to the soul OR it is only a facade and the ravages of time will leave it exposed for its true value.

Beauty is found where kindness and caring flourish. It is accompanied by acts of kindness and sacrifice for others. Unlike physical beauty time does not dimminish it or its desirablity but enhances its value.

May we all look more deeply for the beauty in others and not judge on outward appearance only, because sometime the heart sees more clearly than the eye.