Years ago, we sang a song in choir, Find Us Faithful. Here are some of lyrics of the song.
We're pilgrims on the journey Of the narrow road And those who've gone before us line the way Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses Let us run the race not only for the prize
And our children sift through all we've left behind May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Of course I always laughed at the line above that is bold and italiced. Those around me are thinking of finding wonderful letters or things that give a clue to something about their loved one. My thoughts always turned to, "what the heck was dad thinking when he saved this?" I keep seeing in my mind's eye, amusment from those who have to go through all the junk and dare I say crap that one accumulates in life. You know those kind of weird and offbeat kind of thoughts.
My mother in law was taken to the hospital in January and she never returned home. That got me to thinking, not only should one take care of their eternal plans, have a valid will, all necessary instructions for burial and the like, but one's personal junk should be left in order. Cause you never know who and how many will be going through your stuff. I think Peggy and I just made a vow once we are able to move after receiving the news of untimely demise, to go with haste to the other ones home and throw away all underwear. No need to be laughing about what one has been wearing or at one time wore.
This weekend I was able to have just that type of experience as I helped Roy clean out his mother's bedroom and bathroom. No, we didn't find anything kinky but we did find the weird. Roy and I threw out 20 bags of trash into the dumpster just from those rooms. We barely touched Roy's fathers side of the bathroom.
I will write a longer post on this but right now I am busy cleaning out my own drawers. In light of the recent cleaning out the house of my mother in law, I became aware that I don't want to have a bunch of junk around to amuse the cleaner outers around here. Already I know I have way too many V-5 Precise pens, extra fine and un-used journals coming out of the wazoo. The literary journals are getting thrown out. They only mean something to me and I doubt I ever re-read any one of them. The only magazine I keep all the copies of is The Oxford American. I do go back and re-read those. After seeing how many never used eye shadows and blushes from Estee Lauder bonus time in her drawer, I think I may need to go through my bonus makeup I have received and not used in the past few years. This weekend clearly effected Roy and his desire to keep old magazines from different ministries. I believe we will be seeing a huge trash bag of those going out to the dumpster. I cannot tell you how glad this makes me. We have had several "discussions" about this. For goodness sake, he doesn't ever read his legal journals that come. He claims he will read them for CLE credit, but he never does. I pitch them before he even sees them and not once, no NOT once has he ever inquired about them.
So you will just have to wait for the next exciting post of our weekend in Shreveport and some fun things that happened before we left.
I just found a box of love letters from an old high school boyfriend. Yep, those are defiantly heading for the trash.
6 comments:
I had to do this a couple of years ago. It does make you stop and think about your own STUFF. Makes ya want to stick something funky in every now and then to surprise them!
great idea-the underwear toss vow- i am preparing the pledge for my sister to sign!
I had to do this two years ago when my parents died 3 months to the day...They lived in a 4000 sq foot house for the past 30 years and had never thrown ONE thing away...I mean not one.... I won't even tell you all they kept...For what? I have not a clue...but it took us a month to clean out the house and get this....besides the estate sale....We took 205 black garbage bags to the dumpster..
I wish I could have seen you this weekend....but you would not have wanted to see me.....deathly sick with the stomach bug that has plagued our family...
My Aunt Frances always says she can't die until her closets are clean and by not cleaning them she has insured herself of a long life.
On a side note, most of the paper you will find to throw away can be recycled at various spots around town. Lots of schools really profit from folks filling their bins.
In 1996 my sister and I had the same experience of cleaning out the home we grew up in and Mom and Dad lived in for 50 years. It was still three more years before Mother went home to see Jesus. Dad went to see Jesus 20 plus years earlier.
My husband and I came home with a 17 ft uhaul packed full and with a resolve not to have our daughters go through this type experience.
Yes, I am with you continually throwing out...to keep only the important that would really bless my family.
Could you come help me next? I just hate to throw away stuff but I hate the clutter and the fact I never will either read it, wear it, or need it.
Actually my mom did all this and I never really realized how thankful I am that she had everything in order for the most part before her death. Sure was helpful to our family!!!
Post a Comment