of cabbages and Kings

..."the time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things;
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax -
Of cabbages - and kings-
And why the sea is boiling hot -
And whether pigs have wings."
from "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll

Sometimes....

This life seems to have its own idiosyncrasies.
Sometimes it seems pointless and meaningless.
Other times it is overflowing with wisdom and Epiphanies.
And then there are times when its just simple, funny, and a little quirky.

At times I think God has an amazing sense of humor. A way of putting the larger than life stuff into perspective to keep our perspective from getting too far out of alignment.

A year or so ago, I misplaced my debit card. That sounded more "responsible" than the plain simple truth that I lost it. Period. I searched every inch of this house. I searched the waste can (yuck) to no avail. I finally gave up and resigned myself to the fact that I had probably tossed it in the trash unknowingly and prayed it did not end up in the hands of an unscrupulous soul. After several months I forgot about it.

My motto for some time now has been to simplify. I have been trying to simplify in my material possessions, in my thought life, in my expectations, in all areas of my life. It has been an eye opener to really step back and evaluate where I am and where I have been. I have never really been one for extravagance although I do appreciate some nicer things. Our little town is somewhat known for the "big fish in a big pond" mentality when I had it pointed out to me that those who believe that of themselves are not even big fish in a little pond. I totally agree but I digress. Sorry. This town is really guilty of buying into the mentality of labels and brand names. Designer clothes. Expensive or trendy cars. The latest brand of bling. You name it. I find it rather ridiculous.
It is not the stuff that makes the person. What's in the heart defines the measure of a man or woman, whichever the case may be.

The point... well in the same week I had two good laughs. God knew I needed a laugh because of the heartache that has been so much a part of our lives recently.
The temperatures had dropped in the 20's and teens. I had been looking everywhere for my winter coat. I seldom wore it because I have had a tendency towards being hot natured in past years. My coat has a zip out liner which was hanging in my closet but the coat was missing. One day I had gone to the shed looking for a tool or something and I happened to notice my coat hanging on the coat rack out there. Now this is my "good" coat, hanging in the shed with the work coats and hunting clothes. No idea why or how...but I took it off the hook. It was rather dirty. Cobwebs. Not something I wanted to just throw on and wear. I tossed it in the washing machine without a thought. Well some hours later, Natalie came in where I was reading and said, "Did you say you lost your debit card?"
"yes, a long time ago. why?"
"Well, I found this in the washing machine." She was holding up a debit card. Now in a split second all of this ran through my mind.
" well it can't be mine. We have a new machine since I lost mine. How could it get in there? Must be Katie's. Wait a minute!" and the light went off in my head and hers at the exact same time we looked at each and burst out laughing...
"the COAT"!!!
Good grief. My card had been in my coat pocket all this time. I never dreamed....

That same week we received a gift in the mail. A fairly large box from Arbonne. Unbeknownst to us when you reach RVP in Arbonne you apparently get a Christmas gift from them. Cool. We opened the box which revealed yet another box with a lovely fabric bow.
This box said "Tiffany and Co."
wow! I never thought I'd see the day I would own anything from Tiffany's.
We pull out this heavy box, open it to find a lovely crystal champagne cooler.
We laughed! OK. We live in southern Illinois. This lovely item would be commonly known to most folks here as a fancy ice bucket. I don't believe I have ever bought a bottle of champagne. Beer is more to our liking. Well as we contemplated what we might do with such an extravagant item we called a couple of the other gals who received one to see what they had in mind! Of course ALL of us had the first thought of, "cool! Must be worth some money! Sell it!!!"
then we thought, "no, when would we ever own a Tiffany crystal bucket...excuse me, champagne cooler."
One dear friend thought she might get a gold fish to put in hers, one thought some lovely Christmas ornaments would set it off nicely, I thought if it weren't so heavy I could take it out to the hen house to gather the eggs!
After amusing ourselves with ideas I decided perhaps I should put it in my china cabinet for safe keeping. I opened the door and had to make room. I looked for a moment and decided on a spot.
I gently moved my $2.00 Wal-mart bowl and placed it beside my $5.00 Dollar General cake plate.
It looked right at home.