When you enter someone’s home, one of the first things you do is take a look around and get a feel for the “coziness” of a home. Sometimes it just hits you like a brick wall, and you think ‘dang. This feels like a HOME’ sometimes you walk in and you feel the chill of anxiety, harshness, etc. typically you wouldn’t hang out in the latter home.
After figuring out the ‘feel’ of the home, you start to look at the stuff. Even the simplest home is going to have stuff. For example, I’m sitting on the purple couch in my living room that has 5 throw pillows a few blankets and coffee mug sitting on the table next to me. The couch itself is sitting on a rug. On the perimeter of the rug are 3 more chairs, a love seat, and our television stand/television. On the television stand we have a Wii console, a DVD player, cable box, Wii games, DVDs, etc. The television is mounted over the fireplace with a canvas photo on either side, speakers, and decorative books.
That’s a lot of stuff for a 10x15 space! That is not even my whole house!
We tend to collect STUFF. And I am not talking ‘hobby’ collecting; I am talking things that fill a home, which we deem necessary to have, to some extent. From pillows and blankets, to books and dishes. Cloth napkins to the clothes that we wear. We INVEST in these things.
$10 for a blanket
$20 for 2 decorative pillows
$15 dollars on this frame, $30 on that one.
$100 for a set of dishes with 4 place settings.
$10 for a pretty bowl, and $2 each for each piece fake fruit you put inside.
$200 for a set of chairs that go around the $150 table.
$400 bucks for the sofa.
You get such a wide array of things at varied prices that after purchase are carefully placed in their correct place in your home. The couch is placed in the living room, and the decorative pillows on top. The table, chairs and dishes all go into the formal dining area a placed specifically to their best place of display and utility. When things get broken, or worn out what do you do with them? You either try to fix them OR your throw them away, and get rid of it.
We do the same thing with events and situations in our lives. Things happen, and feelings either become elated or disappointed. Events happen, and people enter our lives, and friendships are forged and destroyed. Some of us put a welcome mat at the entrance to our hearts and lives, welcoming people in to see what all has happened in our lives to get us to the point where we are today. Some of us have a lock on the door that a select few have access too. And there are the ones of us who are bolted, gated, locked, and chained into our own hearts not allowing anyone, or anything access to who we really are.
Once you get into the door some someone’s heart, whether a friend, significant other, spouse you start to see the stuff; where they’ve invested their time, who they cherish most, and why. You see the things that are off to the side that haven’t been so well taken care of, whether it is a relationship, an area where emotions have been neglected etc.
Each of these things is found in different compartments of our heart, different layers. Some areas are neglected, while other are nurtured and well taken care of.
All of that just to say, what are you taking care of? Are those things in the right places with the right priorities? And what are you neglecting? Are their broken things hidden in the back that needs to be addressed? What are the things that you are choosing to invest wisely in the people that you spend the most time with? Are you choosing to invest in things that benefit you and bring you life?
Just a thought.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Years :)
