There are times when you are handed a box tied up in what you think is a bit of a dodgy gift bag. You aren’t quite sure what it is, how to take it, but you smile and accept and appreciate the gesture and feel sure that later on you will come to the realisation of just how to dispose of this ‘thing’ when you have a moment to yourself.
But sometimes that box sits in the bottom of the cupboard for a while and collects layers of dust. You go to vacuum the closet and there it is, poking it’s head out at you and you still, somehow, can’t seem to bring yourself to turf it into the trash. You rearrange it, pull it out and look at it differently. Perhaps you even think about what you could do with it in a certain situation. Maybe that Halloween party that you never go to, may end up being the perfect occasion for what is essentially a regreatable possession.
And then, randomly, one day you pull out the box and begin to ponder it’s uses, and think to yourself – ‘I could make something out of this’. It stares back at you daring you to take up the gauntlet of creativity and make use of this neglected opportunity. All of a sudden you realise that its’ not just about the box, it’s about investing In how to make the box work for you. How to create a usefulness and perhaps unleash it’s potential. And as you begin to work with it and mould it, shape it into something, you can begin to see its’ use and that maybe it isn’t quite the Pandora that you once thought it was.
After a few bashes and chips and falls off the sideboard, time passes by and all of a sudden you’ve been holding onto this thing for years and it still hasn’t made its way to the St Vincent de Paul society – for some unknown reason – you’ve held onto it. And with a bit of spit and polish, you begin to charm it and use it- maybe as a fruit bowl, or the thing that holds all the useless items that you collect in the kitchen drawer. It gets a purpose.
Then the purpose turns into an investment. You start to treasure what it actually holds for you and how it has started to create something functional that every now and then you do dip into. You start to realise that it’s a task that you can create opportunity out of. You start to flesh out the uses, find the gold coin at the bottom of the jar and use that coin to begin new projects or new starts.
When you reach the end of something, I find it easy to reflect. But when you can reflect on a task that at first felt like it was an obligation and a burden and then see the opportunity to turn it into a task that rewards you, that lets you explore and learn and create and even tap into old skills that you thought were long past – then it takes on a whole new meaning and ironically begins to deliver you energy rather than taking it away from you.
You almost become grateful, that the task of daily undertaking can actually turn into something that nurtures and lets you explore your own wants and desires and thirst for knowledge, you can’t help but feel grateful.
So – this won’t be my last BLOG. I’ve come to enjoy the process of taking lessons delivered upon me, random thoughts, haphazard conversations and even criticisms that i’ve been able to go away and explore further. Wondering where on earth my motivation for that thought process came from, and perhaps questioning myself and proving to myself – did I get it right? So you may still hear from me – every now and then, I might find the inspiration to pop up and put something out there for whatever reason, even if it is just for my own self indulgence.
I do want to thank all of you who have commented, reposted, sent a text with a smiley face or a card letting me know that these weekly musings reached a chord or brought you some reflection. I hope with all this new reading I will be doing, I’ll have a lot more to offer in the future.
For now, signing off the Max Blog… for now…
