Messages in the Mundane are enlightening lessons I learn in the process of going about my day. Things have a way of falling into place that speak volumes to me to share with you…
The other day I bumped the desk I sit at in the Creative Zone in my office and I heard something hit the metal vent underneath it. I looked from where I stood but didn’t see anything so figured whatever fell off is long gone.
Oh well. I’m not wasting energy wondering what it was. Life goes on.
Today (Sunday, 3.10.24) as I got up from my Creative Zone desk my eyes glanced over a glass jar with a silver lid that sits upon my desk. And I immediately knew what fell off.
I had an ornate, brass skeleton key sitting on top of it. Well, it’s not a real one, it’s for crafts or decor or something like that. Something shiny I picked up somewhere along the way.
So I look a little more closely at the vent under the desk and now I see it – the key wedged precariously in the gills (??) of the vent. They’re very close in color so the key blended in perfectly, camouflaged nestled in the vent.
I keep the vent closed because it gets hot as Hades back here. Even for me, who is cold far too often now.
And yet I have a little heater under my desk.
By the vent.
That I keep closed because I get too hot.
That really doesn’t make any sense, does it?
Welcome to my world….
I grabbed a paperclip and unfolded it, feeling quite like MacGyver tbh, and went after that key. Which promptly fell down into the vent anyway.
Since I really wanted that key back I pulled the vent out and took a peek in there. It was right where I could reach it.
But Wait, There’s More…
Naturally, you’re surely not surprised that I found other things in the vent as well. Quite a few of those little pony O’s that come in pastel colors for putting in little girls hair (from the previous owners of our house). A (thankfully dead) earwig. And IDK what else, really. Stuff.
Long lost, forgotten stuff.
However, there was also a broken piece of one of my favorite plates that got destroyed in the Great Shelf Debacle. I’ll be writing about that soon and connecting these posts. That post will have soooo many connected posts, that experience is quite the teacher.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you might have seen me post a bit about it. I’ve wanted to write about it for a while now but I’m just now getting back onto my blogging feet.
One thing you must know about me: I tend to be very spontaneous. A bit random. Or a lot random, actually. Schedule and routine were never my thing, though I’m working on that.
Because Big Things don’t just happen by chance, generally. I do believe they can. But the Big Thing I’m working on has so many moving parts and pieces it can not just randomly come together like I envision.
It takes consistent work and effort, just like anything else we endeavor to accomplish.
Putting The Pieces Together…
I held these two items, in my hands, turning them over.
One I didn’t even know I’d lost and one I didn’t realize WHAT was lost until I did.
Made me think about Broken Things. Lost Things. Lost Keys. Lost Pieces. And the joy of finding them again, especially when you thought they were gone forever.
We’ve all lost things at some time in our life. Literally or figuratively, it makes no difference really. Something lost is something we’re missing in our life.
That’s not always bad, of course.
But we rarely mourn the lost BAD things, do we?
We miss the things we lose that have significance to us.
The fancy key wasn’t sentimental, but for some reason it held significance for me so I placed it in a prominent place where I could see it easily.
The broken piece reminded me of the plate that, when whole, I enjoyed looking at and using in recipe posts. I like the colors and the pattern on the plate. But it wasn’t something sentimental either.
Yet these two random things which were only connected by being in my space and each a thing that was significant in some way to me, taught me some valuable lessons.
1 . What is lost can be found again. Even the broken pieces you didn’t know were missing…perhaps because you were so shattered you couldn’t possibly keep track of all the pieces to try and glue them back together again. If you believe in God, have hope in lost things being restored to you.
2. Sometimes, the missing key is hard to see. You might not even know it’s missing, at first. Perhaps you have a vague sense that something is missing but you’re not quite sure what.
In that case, if you dismiss it as a part of life and move on you may never discover that missing key – ever.
Or, you can look a little more closely at the situation. Perhaps it means dismantling something to have a look around inside. And maybe it’s messy in there.
Maybe there’s spiders. Or other scary, unknown things.
But you go in anyway, with courage, and find your missing key.
And, perhaps, also a piece you didn’t know was missing.
The first lesson is a lesson of RECEIVING. If God restores what is lost, are you willing to receive it with gratitude?
The second lesson is one of TAKING ACTION. We can always choose to not do something. I could have not looked more closely at the vent after realizing the key was the thing that fell off the desk. But, it was worth it to me to put in the effort to investigate, and so I did.
Even still, I had to DO something. I tried to retrieve it, only knocking it down farther away.
3. Sometimes our actions make things harder for ourselves (or others). In spite of our best efforts, sometimes we end up a step (or several) back. Sometimes we make things harder or even unintentionally hurt others.
We can give up at that point, of course. At any point in anything we do we can give up and walk away. We always have that freedom. Doesn’t mean it’s easy but it’s always a choice available to us.
Or, we can regroup. Look at it from another angle. Find a different solution and try again. Make amends with others, if needed.
Maybe we made it more messy and unpleasant than it needs to be. But, without this experience you’d not learn something you need to learn.
Right now I’m in a position of learning how to receive and how to take action. I’m also cleaning up some messes that I, myself, made so this was a very timely Message in the Mundane.
Naturally. They always are…
Kate says
This blog post resonates with me so much in this season of my life. Thank you for making the jump!! Yah is going to use this platform in amazing ways!
Dawn Yoder says
I’m so glad! That critical voice in my head tries to tell me that no one wants to hear this…. ๐๐
I appreciate you taking the time to tell me, thank you so much and I hope what I share continues to bless you ๐ โฅ๏ธ