This decorate-it-yourself Starbucks travel mug has been sitting at the back of one of our kitchen cabinets for years… 6 years, in fact, the length of time we’ve been in our house (side note: the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere).
In the name of freedom, I have been in mega-purge THROW AWAY ALL THE THINGS mode for the past couple of weeks. One night last week I was digging through a cabinet and lining up on the counter the items which were on the chopping block. I heard something knocking around in this mug and opened it up to find two little packages, wrapped in red tissue paper, and a fairy sticker.
Suddenly, I remembered. (and by remembered I mean I lost my breath, the color drained from my face, my knees became weak and wobbly). This is the last birthday gift I ever bought and prepared for my best friend Larissa, which she never received (her cycling accident was the week before her 23rd birthday). It was like a little perfectly preserved time capsule/bomb sitting in my kitchen all these years.
a sticker for her car, 2 Sephora eye liners & a sharpener (hey, I was in college)
This is the point in the post where I was going to talk about the major revelation this incident caused me to have and the deep, life-changing thing I learned. But, I couldn’t think of anything, except that sometimes sucky, hard things happen.
Larissa died, and I will still be missing her and grieving for her for the rest of my life. I found the last birthday present I ever bought for her, and it was really painful and crappy. And, I need to clear out our cabinets more often. I mean… seriously.
If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there;
if you’re kicked in the gut, He’ll help you catch your breath. Psalm 34:18
