Tired of Carrying Stuff
By Claudia Honeycutt
Mitchell County
I was coming in the door today at the plant with all the groceries for Christmas Brunch on Thursday morning. I caught my mangled-up expression in the glass as I brushed through for the tenth time with armloads of food. It wasn’t an angry look, or really even a frustrated one. It was a tired look. I was balancing 5 gallons of apple juice, 120 plates, and cups, table cloths, gallons of milk, and OJ….. I was thinking “Man, I am so TIRED of carrying stuff.”
I always laugh about being a rolling party bus. We love to throw parties in my house. This week has been full of parties. It will hopefully be more full by the weekend. I love getting together with my girlfriends like we did last night at the Tea Party, and with my family and friends as often as possible. I love birthday parties. Baby parties. Anniversary parties. Going away parties. Valentine’s parties. Christmas parties… It is just fun. Simply fun.
However, I carry stuff constantly. A lot of stuff. Groceries. Bags. Bags upon bags, upon bags… Piles of decorations, and dishes. There are always loads of ribbons and balloons and centerpieces and such in my car. Most recently, 100 mugs of all sizes and shapes for our Christmas Tea. My car always rattles with glasses clanging together, and plates shifting. There is usually leftover food of some sort in it. I would love to tell you it’s all neatly organized and things are placed by size and shape. Not true. Not true at all.
For the last 4 weeks, there has been a very nice baby walker back there also. Last night, the Heavenly Angel from the tea party rode home nestled in the seat of it….. It did roll across the back of the car, and I lost her head. A little glue will fix it. When I find it…..the head, not the glue. I know where the glue is. I keep it close.
Back to the tired – It’s all the stuff. We all carry lots of stuff. Whether it’s physical stuff, or emotional stuff, or spiritual stuff – we carry lots of baggage. If we don’t watch it, that “stuff” will wear us down to the point that it breaks us. I encourage you this Christmas week….let’s lay some of our stuff down. Let’s find some friends, or some kids, or some husbands or neighbors or somebody to help us carry it all. We don’t have to carry it all in at once. We don’t have to carry it everywhere we go. We don’t have to be worn out from being a tote wagon, just because we think we are supposed to. We women, we are bad at that you know. We want to carry not only our “stuff”, but everyone else’s too!
It’s Christmas, y’all. Let’s enjoy it. Enjoy our time together. I still don’t have a tree. I still have ZERO gifts purchased. I still have to work till Friday. Those of you that are all done, I admire you. Those of you that aren’t…I feel ya! But really, let’s just enjoy the madness. And, enjoy the quiet. And, enjoy the busy. And, enjoy the still. Our people, they are depending on us to keep it all together. And we will. With some help from above. Jesus carries our “stuff” the best.
