So, I'm sitting in my new apartment . . . I moved in yesterday, to live with three of my friends. I'm glad to be here. But, I definitely hate the whole process of moving . . . packing all your stuff in boxes, suitcases, etc only to drive to a new place and take it all out again. But, I'm not writing this complain about moving.
As I was sorting and packing my stuff, I got to thinking about what is most important in life. So often we put our value in what we own - our stuff - but is that really what is important in life? As I decided what to move and what to get rid of I began to realize that the most important things I had don't come from the actual stuff I have, the most important things were the friendships and life-changing events that some of those things represented.
The stuffed animals . . . I have a lot of them and I like them . . . but the ones that mean the most are the ones given to me by close friends or family . . . they represent a valued realtionship in my life. My Bible . . . I have more than one, but this particular one . . . the first (non-children's) one that I was given by my parents . . . it's been well used . . . three summers as camp staff, two years at Bible college, missions trips, youth events, and just the rest of life in-between . . . the Bible is pretty worn and the pages are falling out, but it has meaning because of the journey of my life that it has been a part of. My journals . . . the story of my life . . . my battles, my victories . . . really they're just notebooks that only have meaning because of what I have written on the pages. My saxophone . . . the first musical instrument that was ever my own . . . I honestly don't play it much anymore . . . but it means something because I know that my parents spent a long time searching for one that they could afford to get for me so I didn't have to borrow one from the school. Or my photo scrapbooks . . . pages of pictures and stories . . . I love looking at them . . . but not because of what they are actually are . . . because of the parts of my life that those pictures and stories represent. My golf clubs . . . I don't play as much as I wish I could . . . but they represent a special relationship with my grandparents . . . they taught me to golf and spent many hours every summer golfing with me . . . that time with them is invaluable . . . but my golf clubs represent that to me.
I would consider all of these things important to me. But, as I was packing them up to move them this last week, I realized that I didn't consider them important just because they were things I owned, but they were important because of what or who they represented in my life. While I most definitely wouldn't want to lose any of these things that I consider important . . . I think if I did someday, I would be OK as long as the people and life events they respresent to me were not lost.
I think that maybe I need to tell the people that these things are from how much they really mean to me more often than I do right now. So, if you are reading this, it's probably becsause I've passed the information on to you and I would consider you a friend. For starters, thank you to you for being a friend and being someone who I appreciate having in my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment