Lesson numero dos
I learned a lot of lessons from Cindy that I should have learned earlier in life. Lesson #2 is this:
You can make choices. You cannot choose the consequences of those choices.
I spent most of my day today, cleaning up from the aftermath of those choices. I've been un-bagging and re-boxing and sorting a 12' X 14' bedroom full of stuff that Miss June had here. Eventually she's going to come back and get it. When she does, she'll find it sorted, packed in boxes that stack, and ready to go.
And in that stuff, I got reminded, vividly, of the consequences of my bad decisions.
I found pictures from a weekend getaway Wendi and I had in San Francisco in 2004. I found the Disneyland tickets she kept as keepsakes from our time there. She had pictures of Hollywood from the day she took Steven there. They were stuck in this bag and that.
But those aren't the only pictures I came across. There were pictures of her with the kids and their dad. There are boxes and boxes of kids clothes and toys. There are Christmas and Thanksgiving dishes and glasses that I gave Wendi. And of the oddest things I came across, were Cindy's address torn from an envelope from something she mailed me last year, and Tami Jo's phone number.
I found Tami Jo's cat's vet and adoption papers. I tossed those. Lilee is long gone. I found tools that I know aren't mine. I found boxes and bags of seeds. And I found lots and lots of things that are just trash. Six black bags of it, to be exact.
I found the remote for the little band Wendi's dad gave her for Christmas. I knew we had it. It was in a box of seeds. Now it's in with the Christmas stuff. The old lady drives me nuts sometimes. There is furniture. There are a couple of potty training chairs.
I found a camera in a bag with hygiene items and a nightie that I'm about 100% sure isn't Miss June's.
I found expired food.
I wonder sometimes what goes through June's head. She keeps everything. I even found a couple of pictures of Fat Ass and Snot. Fat Ass is Simba, who you may remember is the pussycat who taught me to love my enemies.
I put all the pictures in a box. Even the ones of him! Because they're a part of the consequences of a decision I made that I couldn't see. I made my choices and Wendi made hers because of the ones I made. I'm mindful of that tonight.
I try to think things through a little bit more these days. And I'm seeing some good consequences coming from the choices I've made lately. My GF and her sister are on their own walk with Jesus. She told me tonight after dinner, I led her toward making that decision and she's led her sister to also make that decision. They're as excited as I was when I was a newbie Christian. They're praying, and seeing God in their lives and learning about that relationship! As I mentioned before, it's God, not me, that did that. He just used me to help Him in the process and He gets both the credit and the glory!
Those are good consequences from opening up myself and my home to some folks who came to Thanksgiving dinner. Good consequences I like.
And I'm mindful too, about other consequences beyond Wendi. I don't get why the old woman had Tami's phone number tucked away. I'd found some photos on my computer a couple of years ago that Tami had taken, and I downloaded them to a flash drive and asked June to ask Wendi to call Tami (for some reason they were friends for a minute) and ask her if she wanted them. I found said flash drive amongst the bags and bags of stuff in the bedroom.
I found her number someplace else.
I'm not calling her.
Ever.
Not this side of glory.
The thing I don't get is why she had Cindy's address though. It was literally torn from the envelope she's mailed the thing to me in. Weird. Sometimes that Miss June just makes me shake my head, but it did remind me of the unforseen consequences I went through with her for a season, and about that lesson.
Tomorrow sometime, more boxes will come. The GF has kindly volunteered to help me finish boxing up everything. It's all going to get stacked neatly back in the bedroom it came out of. The furniture is heading to the transfer station sometime this week, as are the several black bags of stuff that is just trash.
With that, the stuff that's in the sitting room I built (which is mostly just Christmas stuff) will join it and collect dust until Miss June makes her way back to retrieve it someday.
And I will be mindful of lesson numero dos. Also, I'll have the sitting room put together as a guest room, because for some reason, I think I'm gonna need it.
But that's a different story!
You can make choices. You cannot choose the consequences of those choices.
I spent most of my day today, cleaning up from the aftermath of those choices. I've been un-bagging and re-boxing and sorting a 12' X 14' bedroom full of stuff that Miss June had here. Eventually she's going to come back and get it. When she does, she'll find it sorted, packed in boxes that stack, and ready to go.
And in that stuff, I got reminded, vividly, of the consequences of my bad decisions.
I found pictures from a weekend getaway Wendi and I had in San Francisco in 2004. I found the Disneyland tickets she kept as keepsakes from our time there. She had pictures of Hollywood from the day she took Steven there. They were stuck in this bag and that.
But those aren't the only pictures I came across. There were pictures of her with the kids and their dad. There are boxes and boxes of kids clothes and toys. There are Christmas and Thanksgiving dishes and glasses that I gave Wendi. And of the oddest things I came across, were Cindy's address torn from an envelope from something she mailed me last year, and Tami Jo's phone number.
I found Tami Jo's cat's vet and adoption papers. I tossed those. Lilee is long gone. I found tools that I know aren't mine. I found boxes and bags of seeds. And I found lots and lots of things that are just trash. Six black bags of it, to be exact.
I found the remote for the little band Wendi's dad gave her for Christmas. I knew we had it. It was in a box of seeds. Now it's in with the Christmas stuff. The old lady drives me nuts sometimes. There is furniture. There are a couple of potty training chairs.
I found a camera in a bag with hygiene items and a nightie that I'm about 100% sure isn't Miss June's.
I found expired food.
I wonder sometimes what goes through June's head. She keeps everything. I even found a couple of pictures of Fat Ass and Snot. Fat Ass is Simba, who you may remember is the pussycat who taught me to love my enemies.
I put all the pictures in a box. Even the ones of him! Because they're a part of the consequences of a decision I made that I couldn't see. I made my choices and Wendi made hers because of the ones I made. I'm mindful of that tonight.
I try to think things through a little bit more these days. And I'm seeing some good consequences coming from the choices I've made lately. My GF and her sister are on their own walk with Jesus. She told me tonight after dinner, I led her toward making that decision and she's led her sister to also make that decision. They're as excited as I was when I was a newbie Christian. They're praying, and seeing God in their lives and learning about that relationship! As I mentioned before, it's God, not me, that did that. He just used me to help Him in the process and He gets both the credit and the glory!
Those are good consequences from opening up myself and my home to some folks who came to Thanksgiving dinner. Good consequences I like.
And I'm mindful too, about other consequences beyond Wendi. I don't get why the old woman had Tami's phone number tucked away. I'd found some photos on my computer a couple of years ago that Tami had taken, and I downloaded them to a flash drive and asked June to ask Wendi to call Tami (for some reason they were friends for a minute) and ask her if she wanted them. I found said flash drive amongst the bags and bags of stuff in the bedroom.
I found her number someplace else.
I'm not calling her.
Ever.
Not this side of glory.
The thing I don't get is why she had Cindy's address though. It was literally torn from the envelope she's mailed the thing to me in. Weird. Sometimes that Miss June just makes me shake my head, but it did remind me of the unforseen consequences I went through with her for a season, and about that lesson.
Tomorrow sometime, more boxes will come. The GF has kindly volunteered to help me finish boxing up everything. It's all going to get stacked neatly back in the bedroom it came out of. The furniture is heading to the transfer station sometime this week, as are the several black bags of stuff that is just trash.
With that, the stuff that's in the sitting room I built (which is mostly just Christmas stuff) will join it and collect dust until Miss June makes her way back to retrieve it someday.
And I will be mindful of lesson numero dos. Also, I'll have the sitting room put together as a guest room, because for some reason, I think I'm gonna need it.
But that's a different story!
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