Inventory

Last night the butter I was heating up in the microwave exploded.  As I was taking the glass turntable out to clean it, it slipped and smashed on the counter.  Luckily, when I replaced the microwave, I kept the turntable from the last one.

We all collect stuff we may need in the future.  The inventory of our lives piles up; in basements, attics, garages and closets.  Need a replacement for the coffee pot?  Got it.  Need a handle for the mop?  Check the garage.  Sheets of plywood, scraps of carpet, tiles for the bathtub, paint for the ding in the wall the vacuum made as it came around the corner?  Got it!

So this got me thinking about other inventory- the emotional stuff we store away.  Much of it is good; memories of friends and family.  Whenever we are feeling blue we dig out those warm feelings of being part of a strong circle of loving support.  There are also the negative emotions that are stored in a dark corner.  When those thoughts and feelings come out, they are black and moldy like the cheese hidden behind the jars on the top shelf of the fridge.  Most often that inventory is hauled to light when our egos are bruised.  Every kid has said to his or her mother, “You always liked him more than me” and can recite line and verse all the little injustices they stored away in their minds.

Whenever I move, which has been no less than 17 times in my life, I pack up all the obvious then look at the inventory.  The stuff that is left over that has no real box with a label.  It’s not the Christmas decorations, the dishes marked “kitchen”, the shoes and clothes in tidy wardrobe boxes.  It’s the inventory of things I think I may need some day.

Today, I’m going to take inventory of my negative thoughts and emotions.  I’m opening all the closets and digging out the bruises and dents to my ego then packing them up for transport to the dump.