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Monday, December 21, 2009
The Beetles of Gratitude
For my birthday this August, I got a lovely bright blue cabinet to put our dishes in, a kind of a small hutchy thing with glass doors. It's a beautiful old handmade piece from India, in a brilliant blue with age-worn wood showing through, tons of character...and for Christmas, I got a thriving condominium for Wood-Boring Beetles. Lucky us. Boring Beetles. We never get the interesting kind.
Said cabinet now adorns the interior of our garage until its appointment to be bombarded with beetle-annihilating boron gas. If it had to be beetles, why couldn't it have been this lovely Christmas Beetle below... even the timing would have been appropriate.
I found a handyman to move the piece to the garage (using the fab referral service Angie's List), made the appointment for the gas blast 26 miles from here a month from now, and arranged for the handman to transport to and fro. I found a new place for all the dishes and things that were inside the cabinet (not easy), and relocated the decor from the top of the cabinet. I did feel the urge to just let go of it all... dishes, cabinet, etc. I honestly wouldn't have felt a huge remorse. I'd have blessed it and sent it on its way. But I found a middle ground. Until the pest guy calls me to inform me if these are the kinds of beetles who re-infest, or run their course.
What does it all mean?
My process:
This is a small problem; it could have been a plumbing problem, or a gas leak, or being stalked by a clown-fan, a canceled trip to Hawaii, a Nicholas Cage movie marathon, or killer bees. It could have been health problems or sadness or tragedy. But it's just expensive and inconvenient. So I'll embrace it gratefully. I made it all work out just fine, so I win.
The beetles have reminded me that I am ready to let go of stuff. That I am tired of carrying all these things around. Time to let go of things that absorb space or weigh me down.
I thought of this almost immediately, because we just saw the above George Clooney movie. The character led a seminar where he asked you to imagine a bag on your back, now put all your stuff in it, everything you own, every piece of furniture and tchatchke, and now put all the rest of your life in it, all your relationships and obligations, etc, and now feel the weight of it all. And I thought, the less things, the less complications. That's what the beetles were saying. That, and... the love you take is equal to the love you make. Koo koo kajoo.
So, if you're keeping score at home, counting the movie, that's TWO promptings to lighten our load. After all, we hope to be moving in the next 6 months. And while I'm grateful for the beetles, it's just one more thing we don't need to take with us to the next house.
~Shephard :)
Labels: Of Mice and Mondays
posted by Shephard @ 