day 27 ~ because nothing lasts forever

there is nothing permanent except change.  ~heraclitus

one of the benefits of working part-time is that i am off on fridays.  and although once in a while i will spend the day doing fun stuff like shopping or having lunch with a girlfriend, most of the time i spend fridays at home doing stuff around the house.  which was the case this past friday.

originally i had planned to go to the garden center to get a few more pansies for my front yard, but my kitchen was a complete disaster.  and so i spent the better part of the day picking things up and putting things away (i.e. the stack of shit that piles up by the phone) and mopping the floor.

anyway, after it was all done i posted this pic to instagram, expressing my hope that my clean kitchen might last for more than 10 minutes.

i had to laugh when i read some of the suggestions from my friends for maintaining a clean kitchen.  two of my favorites were a) move or b) go out to dinner.  which we did indeed do…going out to dinner that is.

anyway, realistically i knew that most likely, in less than twenty-four hours, the kitchen would start collecting the effluvia of our very real, everyday life.  and true to form, by saturday morning there was mail that needed going through, there were glasses in the sink, and there were little bits of dog food on the floor where daisy picked out the pieces she didn’t like.

{please…don’t even get me started}

over the years, i have learned that cleaning the kitchen is not a ‘once and done’ kind of thing.  the same holds true for weeding my flowerbeds, vacuuming the dog hair off the couch, cleaning the cat litter box {see you just thought you were going to get away from my catbox}, doing laundry, and plucking my eyebrows.  it’s just the way life is.  and i am trying to do better about just rolling with it.  to not get so bent out of shape when things don’t last.

i’ve been thinking about this a lot over the course of the summer.  and i made a bit of a startling discovery…because the truth is, i choose this.  i choose to pull weeds because i don’t want a garden made of plastic flowers and white rocks.  i put up with the pet hair and messes because i don’t want stuffed animals for pets.  i want a real life, with real flowers, and real relationships.  and so since that is the case, then i have to accept that this not-to-fun stuff comes with the territory.

i got a big lesson in this very thing over the summer… and it didn’t have anything to do with housework, but rather was in my own personal life.

after a particularly difficult day, i got an email from a dear friend. she didn’t offer any advice per se.  but she helped me to see that by choosing to live a real life, we have to accept that it is not a static thing.  things change.

ahhh…there’s that word again.  change.  sigh…

{sidenote…if my mom was here, she would tell you that i get my dislike of and resistance to change from my dad.}

but i get it.  i just have a hard time with it.  because i like it when things are good. problems are solved.  people are healthy.  relationships working.  i’ll do whatever i have to do to get it there – i am no stranger to, nor am i afraid of hard work.  but once i get it ‘good’, i want it to stay that way.  which i am slowly starting to accept is NOT at all how life works…whether it’s a clean kitchen, a back that doesn’t hurt, or a heart that doesn’t ache.

i know..totally debbie downer there right?  it’s like why bother right?

but before you completely give up there is good news in all of this.  and by that i mean thank you Jesus there is good news.  because just like good things don’t last forever?  well bad things don’t last forever either.  repeat after me…this too shall pass.

so we do not lose heart. though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 corinthians 4:16-18

this concept of impermanence…well, i will tell you quite honestly that it is a constant struggle for me.  but knowing that i have a Father in heaven, a good and loving God, who is with me through it all….even in this uncertain, ever-changing world…

His faithfulness is the one constant in my life. and because of that, i have tremendous peace and hope.

thank you so much for joining me on my 31 day writing challenge. to see all of the posts in this series, please click here. and if you would like to receive future posts via email, you can subscribe here.

 

 

 

 

from the archives

• the view from up there
• we are ok
• praising him in the storm