Use It Or Lose It

Do you still have that great sweater wrapped up in the tissue paper, still in the box, that your significant other gave you? You know the one - you had stared at it each and every time you went by that store and you could give the details of every stitch, button, and the color - well, it was you. You know you told everyone that if there ever was a color that was made just for a certain person - this was your color.

Now, why is that sweater on that shelf? Because you are "saving" it, right? The worse thing you could do is wear that ratty bathrobe when you have that great one in your closet. You have family over and your dishes are chipped and the rose pattern is so faded that it looks like a muted design of different colors. There is that gold-rimmed china decorating the shelves of your buffet - but you won't use it. Once again, you are :"saving" them for that special moment in time. That moment that you are waiting for is now. It is not tomorrow, or the next holiday. It is right now - today - and there are no ands, ifs, or buts about it.

A while back a friend of mine had a devastating fire in her home. Her family had given her Lenox China with the pattern she had dreamt about as a young girl. There it was, on the shelf, in the buffet, nice to look at but now all gone. It was never used. It was waiting for that special moment that never came and will never come. The next set might be just as nice but it is not "the" set that meant so very much. Use the one that means love, appreciation, and good feelings to you, whatever the item may be. That is the one that you will treasure when you remember using it, enjoying it, and marveling at how great you or your home may look, depending on the item we are talking about. If you never take it out of the box or off the shelf, you will have a memory.