Not long after we returned home there was a need to pick up a new mattress for our single guest bed. Weston was the only one available to go in with me to town and I think it must have been his first visit to a furniture store. Thereby, he was unprepared for the inviting layouts of living room furniture throughout the luxurious space. He was drawn to a sectional couch and asked if he could sit on it. I said yes.
After we picked out our mattress, he had found another bigger, softer couch that he was pretty sure we needed.
And would you believe that there was a sale that day? (Of course you would, but to us it seemed Providential). The super sale was for that day only (a Thursday of all things) and if we wanted the slashed price, we had until 5:30pm to purchase. --As we had guests coming in 2 days, everything seemed urgent. The cost, a cautious Daddy, and the fact that we already had two sofas filling up our relatively small living room seemed large obstacles to me, but I saw a engaged determinism in Weston that had started with his enlarged view of life in Oregon and I wasn't going to squash him. I agreed that he could mention it to Daddy once we got back home, but my faith was small.
After we returned, the next thing I know the two of them are looking online and measuring the living room for possibilities. (!)
An hour later, the boys have gone to another movie meeting meeting and I can see that David is on the hook.
We chat.
Do we need this couch?
No.
Do we want this couch?
Of course.
Can we afford it?
Not easy to see how right now.
...And then we start talking about Weston, about our values, about making this year livable and life-giving for us... now.
Lately we have totally been eating supper in our living room instead of at the kitchen table. This is so we can watch instalments of great stories together on the big screen. We call it picnic, and the food always tastes better when consumed in this way.
A new large mocha chennielle sectional would be quite conducive to family snugglement, even if it seems indulgent.
We buy it.
And over the next three days many amazing things fall into place:
1. Weston and I help carry one of our couches OUT THE WINDOW and on to Kyla's pad for its new home.
2. Hadden and Dave and the boys hoist our other couch, the faux leather torn beast, out same said window (poor trampled flowers the only cost) and there it sits on our lawn, hoping to be adopted before going to the dump.
3. And lo and behold, instead of waiting until the middle of the next week for a $100 delivery, David finds a truck to borrow, trots off to Drumheller, loads both sections of our new large couch and he and the boys set it up in our living room. It takes up a lot of space, but is very inviting. And new. So pristine that I find myself quickly picking off any lint or spec that lands on or near it.
And that's not all.
4. The next morning we seem to be in attack mode with our house. Things that have sat, unseen, for months are suddenly being dealt with. Sheets come off beds, right down to the mattress cover, and get a thorough cleaning. Even the mattress gets flipped and turned and the frame moved for overdue vacuuming.
The boys are weary after 90 minutes straight of purging and cleaning, and David is on fire and could easitly go another 3 hours if he had the time. We talk, and the boys are let off the hook for the day, but we speak of asserting a habit of Saturday morning cleaning and organizing and downsizing for the future. We'll see if it sticks, but I believe it will have more traction than pressing through with huge spuratic overhauls.
But the remarkable thing --
is that the new couch was the thing -- the catalyst to engaging the tasks that were waiting to be acted upon. Suddenly having something nice and new in our home made us want to sharpen up our space and make the rest of it nice as well. It raised a standard of living that we hadn't aspired to, or thought was possible.
And it wasn't a gift and it wasn't particularly a need... and yet it became such a stimulus for new productivity, that now I can't imagine life without it.
All the "slow-drip" advice I have been absorbing in my "year to clear" course came into force with the initiation of a change. And we went into action. It was revitalizing.
I can't wait for you to come visit and sit on our lovely new couch.
But even more, I am praying for the fortitude to continue with more life-giving action from this inspiration.
How interesting.
I hadn't foreseen that the indulgence of providing something special and costly would spur on a new pride of ownership and a shedding of old things that were holding us back.
I'm cautious and excited about what will happen next.
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| "Come on Mom, don't you see how important this is?" |
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