Tuesday, April 19, 2005

You Can See My Coffee Table

For the first time in about 3 weeks you can see my coffee table again. It amazes me how quickly that glass top gets covered up with the largest variety of items you can imagine.

The first layer usually consists of teeny, tiny toys that come from plastic eggs, vengeful grandparents, or coin machines at the grocery store. Other items may be stray tissue paper from gifts or extra kleenex from an almost sneeze that never was.

Next you'll get to bigger toys like a beanie baby, a Leap Pad backpack, and a box full of stretchy animals that Santa brought (the big dummy). These items can be deposited by an older child or even a tired parent on occasion.

The bottom layer is usually a modpodge of coloring books, sticker craft pages and miscellaneous mail and papers that Mommy has been looking for. No one confesses to placing them there but the peek-a-poo looks suspicious.

When you get to the bottom of the matter there's usually at least one or two renegade stickers partially stuck on smudged and smeared glass underneath the heap. If at least one of those is shimmering or has a smiley face, the journey to the top of the coffee table can be deemed a success as you move on with a smile in your heart.

Life is kind of like that you know. You go through each day trying to get to the heart of the matter; the really important thing hidden beneath all the other "junk" that clutters the day. I have to say though that without the junk we wouldn't appreciate the heart of it all.

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to do a good thing. To lift up a friend in crisis or encourage a struggling soul might take several layers of effort. But if in the end you find a shimmer of hope in their eyes or a smile on their face, the journey to the center of their heart can be deemed a success.


Thank you God for the layers of our lives, even the ones we have to trudge through.

I need to remember that the trudging is a good thing and that I'm in no way above it. Thank goodness He's still working on me! - Lesa

"Every act of love is a work of peace no matter how small."
- Mother Teresa

No comments: