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Sunday, July 8, 2012

EVERYTHING HAS A SHELF LIFE

March 12, 2019
I enjoy scanning past posts to remember
who I was ..... which helps me make plans
for who I am becoming.
It snowed last night. 
I like Winter, 
Spring, Summer, Fall of 2018 is but a memory. 
Seasons have a 
"shelf life" and a time for every purpose under heaven.
__________________________________________

IT'S TRUE ...
EVERYTHING HAS A SHELF LIFE


From the rising of the sun,
heralding each new day,
we draw closer to
the unseen label
stamped 
upon each of us, as if we were a bottle of ketchup with the warning:

USED BEST BY
FEB32009


or some other date,
signaling that the contents of
such or such bottle, or jar, package or box, the ingredients of which are no longer deemed safe or stable enough to be consumable.
I haven't cleaned out my frig ....
I mean
REALLY cleaned out my frig in
hmmmm, don't know the last time I tackled
the frig.
I browse through it daily,
sometimes
two, three, five, eight times daily
if I'm bored, but not particularly hungry.
Maybe I think I'll find something new
magically appeared next to the
ketchup (I never use) or
mustard (I hate) or
jalapenos (I detest!) or
marmalade (I can't stand marmalade).
But they are all there, in my frig.
Lots of old stuff.
Unless I go shopping
and cram in brand new yummy cartons of
yogurt and cottage cheese,
or a 2 pound loaf of mozzarella,
or kale and carrots and spinach and peppers and
tomatoes (never put tomatoes in the frig) and always hang greenish-yellow bananas on a

uh oh ..... time to buy more bananas. I never noticed if my bananas had a "BEST USED BY" date on them. It wouldn't matter ... I eat one daily .... no chance they go bad ... a little soft and mushy, maybe, but never rotten, black yucky.

Today, July 8, 2012
After coming home from church,
I fed my goldfish and marveled at
a beautiful newly-opened water lily.
Even goldfish have a
"USE BY ...." date.
A few days ago I gently and
respectfully eased one of my goldfish
out of the water ... using a rake, which made
me nervous that I would poke the fish......
who wouldn't have felt it because
her shelf life had met the "BEST USED BY" date.

It's terribly sad to lose a friend .... even if it's one who has fins and gills and scales.
Although, I had never given this particular fish a name.
I have only a few (of my more than 35 goldfish) that I have named.
One in particular is
"White Eyes"
lower left,
lovely lady Alpha fish
of the pond.

"White Eyes " and her pond mate
 who
lived her life to the fullest
then
died   ...... unknown cause....
looked a lot alike.
It was sad to bury this
lovely fish in the garden beside
the pond ... but a fitting place for her.


I felt unsettled and restless ....
was it just from thinking about the dead fish,
or
could it be the sermon in church today
about
"Song of Solomon"
a love story in the Bible
about marriage and devotion, respect,
commitment and sexual attraction.
Of which none of that is present in my life anymore since Eldon died
Feb32009 ..... his "BEST USED BY" date. I don't mean to
sound disrespectful .... Eldon would love this picturesque way of saying
he died. He had a wonderful sense of humor!
I usually find more creative avenues
to work through a downer ....
but today
I decided to clean out my frig.
Too bad I didn't take a picture of
"before".
But you can trust me when I say
each shelf was crammed full,
giving me a false sense of security
in that I would not run out of
condiments to enhance my
sandwiches, or salads,
bbq ribs, or burritos.
However,
by consuming the majority of
condiments cramming the shelves from top to bottom in the door of my frig
could cause my
shelf life to come to an end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


"BEST USED BY 0312 11  (March 12 2011)" read one container.
And it got worse .... and older:
10 08 09
04 10 08
07 05 07!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mmmmmm, good for ya!!!

I felt good
when I stepped back to take a picture of my
clean and uncluttered condiment shelves.
Holding onto stuff, for the sake of owning stuff,
is just clutter ... and can make you sick
unless you clean it all out and make sure
the "BEST USED BY" dates haven't expired.

I tackled Eldon's side of the closet within the
first year after he died, but still have
items that will never
 be removed from my home  ....
or my heart:



 "Shirt Quilt"

"Bathrobe Marine Bear"


"Carhart & Cap"
(I gave Eldon's Carhart jacket to Jessica's beloved Danny last year, 2018)

And reading ahead (of the weekly sermon) in the
"Song of Solomon"
I came across a special verse:

Song of Solomon 8:6,7
"Place me as a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
it's jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned."
You see ....
Eldon had my name
with a rose
tattooed on his arm
before we married in 1956.

Love is the only thing
that doesn't have a
"BEST USED BY"
date.
Love is timeless ....
it never ceases .....
even to the grave
and into the
presence of God.
.....................
Now let's see ...
I think next I'll tackle the shelf
crammed full of
Christmas decorations ....
and after that
.............