THE LITTLE THINGS....

Darren is still out of town so today, Saturday, was spent me cleaning the house from top to bottom. I like Darren to come home to a clean house. Not just clean - but deep down clean and in order.

This morning I started cleaning our plantation shutters. We didn't close our windows for a day or two after the fires started and I didn't realize how much gunk had crept in the house and stuck to them. I couldn't just just do a dust over, I had to clean them with a degreaser type cleaner. They look beautiful again - white and clean, but boy was I cursing those fires this morning. I had to do more than dust, which slowed me down in my day. But then I got hit in the head and heart with a HUGE knock, that I'm sure came from the Lord. I immediately thought of all the people whose clean up is not dusting, but picking up the pieces of their lives. I had dust over my table that sits close to the windows where others no longer have a table to sit at, a dining room, or a window to bother cleaning. After my initial punch in the gut feeling, as I worked throughout the day around the house I couldn't get the fires and the people out of my head. I was really burdened for these people I did not know, so all day long I prayed for them.

Then as I was moving about my house things that I have looked at a thousand times I looked at as though it was the first time today and thanked the Lord for 'the little things.' Those little things that cannot be replaced. I went through a cookbook and found a soup recipe my mom had handwritten for me. I know the recipe by heart, and I even have it on a recipe card in my recipe box, but I will never throw that handwritten one away. I have a little bear that is about three inches tall that held a small charm Darren got me for Valentine's Day four years ago. That bear probably cost him $2, but it held my gold gift and I still display the little stuffed bear. I used one of my favorite spoons tonight while making dinner. I sat on the couch and read, covered in my favorite blue throw that a friend got us as a wedding gift 12 years ago this month. As I sit here at the desk, I'm looking at a softball that Darren got hit with a couple years ago while playing - fractured his left orbital rim; the guys on the team all signed it - Darrenn Platt signed it "Eye Nose you'll feel better soon." A painful, but good memory now. On the same shelf is our Academy Award that we won at the Platt's Oscar party last year. When I go to bed tonight I will be sleeping in sheets and under a comforter that Darren picked out for our newly remodeled bedroom. I just kept thinking, if I lost my home to fire, I could not replace those items, those memories.

So today I am very thankful that God let me see my house and my 'stuff' in a way that made me appreciate my life and my home even more. I didn't spend my day complaining any more about cleaning it...I was thankful for every room I walked in, every piece of clothing and towel I folded, every dish I washed.

I still feel heavy hearted and I will continue to pray for those people who were affected by the fire. Now, go walk through your house and look at all your 'little things,' for the first time...again!