life lessons in the midst of a crumpled day

last week in the midst of my infamous septic tank issues

i was schooled on attitudes & complaining.

not by choice, mind you

i was sitting in my car, behind the mail carrier,

waiting for her to put the mail in my mailbox before i could pull in.

i was in a major hurry-

the septic boys were due any minute & i had to color my rapidly increasing grey roots

before they shut my water off. again.

i knew i should receive my order from jones design company at any time.

well as fate would have it, it was a heavy mail day.

then i see her pull out a cardboard mailer.

yay me. my order had arrived.

then i watch in horror as she bends and folds

said heavy thick cardboard mailer.

i am trying to put my car in park & hop out as quickly as i can.

i ripped open my mailer 

&

sure nuf, my prints were all bent up.

as she circled the culdesac, i walked over & ranted something along the lines of~

excuse me ma'am

i'm not usually this rude

but i am very frustrated at how you crammed this into my box

& ruined my purchase.

to which she replied something along the lines of~

oh i'm so sorry, it didn't have a 'dont bend' sticker so i didn't know.

oh.my.word.

i could have spit bullets.

now

looking at my image

( because i photographed the evidence for you. duh)

it doesn't look all that bad

but my two prints spent 48 hours under 758 pounds of heavy books

still to be bent up & creased

 

incidentally one of the prints features one of my favorite verses. 

the scripture is from matthew. 

jesus is speaking to his disciples in the famous sermon on the mount.

he calls them to be different.

 he gives them instructions.

&

he calls them to shine.

 

the next day i was looking at my new prints

& feeling all disappointed that they were still bent up

& not perfect.

i like life when it's all perfect.

don't you?

when everything is where it should be

no one is sad or sick

things are ironed, crisp, bleached & neatly folded.

it sure is easy to be all bright & shiny then.

when life is good.

it's much harder to be all bright & shiny

when life is not perfect.

the test results were positive

your paycheck was eaten up with repair bills

he left

the car won't start

and the laundry isn't even clean,much less crisp & ironed

but that's just it

in those times

that is when it matters.

that's when people are really watching.

what's on the inside sure does come out when life threatens to take you out.

i want to shine

not just on the rare perfect days

but all of 'em

so i decided i'll frame my crumpled image
it will be a constant reminder to me to shine.
to choose to shine
even in the midst of a crumpled day.

oh & guess what my mail looked like the next day.....

 

that's alright usps mail carrier lady person

no problem

me & my crumbled life lesson 

we're both a.o.k.

we're shining!

matthew 5.14-16

You are the light of the world. 

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 

In the same way, 

let your light shine before others, 

that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.



**addendum. 
i feel really bad. i have had a few people comment about contacting the company that i purchased the merchandise from. she is one of my favorite bloggers. i'm smitten with her creations.
i didn't want this to look bad on her part or give her any bad exposure.
my intentions were to share her shop with you and encourage you to check out all her talent!
 even though it didn't have a "don't bend" sticker on the envelope, it was mailed in a thick heavy cardboard mailer. i have never been a mail carrier but i would assume if someone packaged something in a thick heavy cardboard mailer, it would be assumed that it shouldn't be bent.
much less folded in half  to fit into an already full mailbox. 
but what do i know.
anyway....i just wanted to apologize as i never meant to give bad publicity to jones design.
& besides i would have missed my little life lesson had it arrived pristine :)