That’s how my day was on Saturday. I planned to put my Christmas decorations away. I enjoy the clean, neat feeling that is there when all the messy branches and candle drippings are removed and I have a less crowded room. Often my decor for January is clean, white, and simple. But I digress.

The day before I began taking things down, I sorted out decorations I didn’t need anymore. I looked at unused stockings. There was a “Mom”, “Dad” stocking, even a stocking with a pet’s name on the front. There were two very old ones with my children’s names on the stocking. The white cuffs were dingy. I looked through things my mother-in-law made and gave to me during the past fifty years. Cute wisemen with fancy felt decorated robes. Crocheted and starched angels that were hung from the tree in years past. I fingered a card board poster/hot pad my first grade son made. On the back, his name was carefully printed: Todd.  There was a brass ornament with a little girl all dressed in outdoor clothing,in front of a snowy cabin, with her name on the front: Erika. Those children are no longer children. Another reason to be sad and bluesy. Time is passing.

When I put out my Christmas decorations, I pack items on my shelves not used during the Season away in the empty Christmas boxes. Good idea, right? Well, apparently I didn’t pack one particular vase carefully enough. After twenty-some years of treasuring it, alas, when opening the storage boxes, I found it broken! “Oh no!” I wailed. Jim didn’t quite understand why I was so upset. We could replace it, couldn’t we? Replace? Yes, but you can’t replicate that excited young man—my son—who finally had enough money to shop for gifts by himself with his own money. I remember he waited for me to open that box with a gift I was “sure to like”. I did. If you’ve been in my home, you might remember a large black ginger jar vase with thin gold stripes edging the rounded part of the vase and stripes around the neck.

In spring, I put pink dogwood in it. At Easter, lilies. In summer, soft fluffy lilacs. In fall, burnt orange leaves and near Valentine’s Day, red poppies. Now it was broken! “Maybe I can fix it,” Jim said.

“No, it’s not the same,” I said sadly. I continued my sorting, tossing out worn out old shoeboxes I’d used to pack things. After six hours, I’d put everything away and put the room back in its original order and began putting my winter items out. Maybe I’ll have a look at that vase, I thought. I looked and yes, there was a large gash on the larger rounded part of the vase. Could I turn it around so it won’t be seen and I can still use it?

I did just that. It is in a place where you don’t see the back, just the front. All of a sudden, my bluesy, blah day was brighter. I didn’t have to throw away that vase. Not just yet.

I’m reminded of how our days can be like that. Sometimes they’re bright with hope and wonder, and then a bill comes in the mail you weren’t expecting. Or someone cancels out a lunch date you were looking forward to. A frightening call from the lab where tests have been taken and there’s not a good report about, you or one of your loved ones.  Even worse, someone you love dies.

I’m so glad my well being isn’t only on the temporal things in life. Like vases that break. Like Christmas stockings that are now shabby and worn and not needed anymore. Like our bodies that don’t perform like they did a few years ago. Like when you realize you’ll never accomplish that goal you’ve dreamed of, for there isn’t time.

I’m reminded of a quote a young soldier who is a quadruple amputee—only one of five who’ve survived such an ordeal and what he said about his difficulties. Reminisce the past, look to the future. I’m going to remember that young man who has so much less now than he did before going to Iraq.

Let’s look to the future. And yes, my bluesy, blah-like day sort of disappears as I look to the future of the upcoming year—and beyond. Join me!