Occasionally there is a day when one small cleaning task leads to another and the circling about sometimes leads to forgotten treasures. Yesterday was such a day. And somewhere down the morphing list of window washing, fertilizing plants, and cleaning up the unnoticed leak of laundry detergent which had been punctured some time ago by a curious green parrot... I found myself cross legged in front of a book shelf sorting through a catch-all pile of miscellaneous items;
A canoe map of the TN river system inherited from my Papa and Grandma,
Sermon notes, a smattering of graduation cards, a tourist map of Brussels, Belgium...
Great grandmas watercolor blanks for special hand painted cards....
Plenty of alcohol prep pads, my B.S. nursing pin, my faithful graphing calculator.
A handmade card with dried violas filled with encouragement from a kindred spirit.
My authorization to test for NCLEX - why do I still have this?
A Brazilian book mark with a silly bug cartoon that says in literal translation; "Life with Jesus is a great happiness!"
A well used business card for Mr. Stanton; a master craftsman and inventor. I think the card went through the wash a few years ago.
The next slip of paper brings a smile to my face. There are many unnecessary things that I unintentionally keep for years - but this is not one of them. This was handed to my by a friend with a website penciled on the back. Perhaps my sophomore or junior year in academy. I kept it tucked in the front of my purple three-ring binder where I could be reminded by its wisdom each time I opened it. That purple binder finally disintegrated after 8-10 plus years of scholastic service but I kept the little card when the rest when to the the dumpster. At a glance it has given me a plucky spurt of courage through A&P, Physics, Adult III, and all the classes in between. It has inspired me to reach out to others around me - to do and to be when I would have been silent instead.
I've missed seeing it so often. I think I will take it with me tonight when I go downtown to work and try to be the nurse I've yet to become. It's not the little paper, it's the promise written on it - words I need to see more often. So I will fix it inside the gray locker door and when I see it God Himself will hug my heart and show me what to do.
3 comments:
I really like this, lately I too have been doing lots'a of paper organizing in the evenings. You never know what "old" treasures your bound to find :) Your Greeness pictures are really very pretty too. What kind of snake was it? I took a nice long ride out in the woods yesterday, that was so incredibly refreshing (minus the deer flies), it brought back alot of good memories(from "another" life ;). Got poor Tory stuck literally up to her neck in the mud while crossing a creek though, but she took a deep breath and got out in one great leap. She stays so cool under pressure, lol. I'll talk to you soon, have a wonderful week.
haha - George and I had an adrenaline moment similar to that when Jen and I were bushwaking in the wild yonders behind Cherokee. I appreciate steady footed four footers :)
I love finding things like that. Sometime earlier this year I was cleaning up my room, too, and found a sweet note that you had written to me when we were suitemates. It made me smile. :) That's one benefit of cleaning. hehe.
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