REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ

Lost and Found

12/22/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Are you getting lots of stuff for Christmas? Did you ever consider, that stuff has a story?

Flea markets fascinate me. I think I got this fixation from my Grandmother’s basement which was filled with mysteries from the past - my grandfather’s old carpentry tools, and other artifacts from a time I had only heard about by anecdote. I would wonder at these clues, trying to imagine what kind of man my Grandfather was. Accordingly, I see flea markets with fresh eyes. When I see some old family picture that is there merely for novelty and curios, I try to imagine the untold stories that go with the picture, who the person was, what their life must have been like. 

Sometimes I do that with money too. I take a bill or a coin and I look at it, and it’s true what your Mother said, you don’t know where that money has been, whether it has paid for a christening dress or a if it paid for a date with the other woman who broke up a marriage. 

Stuff, it has a story. There is always more to an item than meets the eye. I have an artifact from my own past which may one day end up in a flea market, a pair of hand-made bells from a Christmas Market, and every year when I hang those bells up around Christmas time, I think of how they were part of my own history. I wonder if someone will one day look at them like just another piece of junk, and never know the story behind them.

There is a series of events by which these bells landed in my hands. I was engaged to be married. I was also trying to relocate my life in Calgary, and one of the things I did was a booth in the Calgary Stampede, a sure moneymaker according to the local lore. Calgary is a boom bust kind of place, and I was in a bust year, I just didn’t know it. Oil was down, people were laid off, and did not have money to spend. I was trying to cover off all avenues, I was doing cowboy caricature portraits, and also selling T-shirts on the side which I had designed and printed myself. Added to this cost, was the rent for a booth, vending permits, and royalties to the Calgary Stampede corporation. A long line of people to be paid up front. By the time Stampede week came, I had invested some fairly serious coin in that one week gamble. 

Stampede week rolled around., and bad economics severely impacted spending. Even the guy beside me who was selling french fries, was not making money. In fact, he packed up in the middle of the week and sent all his employees home because he said he was not covering his payroll or even his hydro. 

I didn’t fare much better. My week was an epic fail. I made fifteen dollars in total. All the money I had paid up front, was sewered down the drain, and I was six months from getting wed. 

You might wince or smile at this. Unfortunately there comes some points in life where you don’t know what is going to happen next and your life is in the garbage can. I tried to sell those t-shirts at various and sundry events. Just couldn’t get rid of them for love or money, they were like a bad luck albatross hanging around my neck.

Finally one day I went downtown and just started wading through the crowds and handing out those T-shirts for free. I was fed up and wanted to be done with the reminder of them. A guy called out, “hey this guy is handing out FREE T-SHIRTS”. Suddenly, I was mobbed. My handful of T-shirts were gone, in about 30 seconds. Those who grabbed a free T-shirt out of my hands, would never comprehend just how much those T-shirts had cost me. They were free, but not cheap. To this day I can’t hear the phrase “well, he lost his shirt in that bargain” without wincing.

The last of my T-shirts I donated to a craft festival in our parish to raise money for charity. Someone else brought in hand made Christmas bells. I traded the last of my T-shirts for a few bells and every year they remind me that there is more to their journey than meets the eye. 

So now you know the rest of the story. It’s never just stuff. You and me, we are just items from the grab bin of life’s big lost and found. When I look at my bells, I think of how life has its share of bad luck and everyone gets their turn. But hope arrives when we least expect it, and life is a miracle that just seems to go on just the same. Because of my bells, I have come to think of Christmas as the holiday of the lost and found, the little forgotten items which turn up after another year and remind us of the times in life when we felt like we hit a dead end and yet somehow survived.

There is always a story behind the story. Jesus did not come just as a baby in a manger. He came to seek and save that which was lost. Those who have been lost a few times, will appreciate better than anyone else, what it means to be found. For them, it really is Christmas - not just on the 25th, but every single day of the year. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Adult Admission
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    A Little Lower Than The Angels
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Saints
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Chaos
    Cherry Top
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Creed
    Crucified Man
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Do It Yourself
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hands And Eyes
    Happy Rooster
    Hearing Voices
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Holy Disorder
    Home Economics
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In The Details
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    Judge Not
    Just A Few Words
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem-ipsum-dolor
    Lost-and-found
    Luck Of The Stable
    Magical
    Make-a-baby-laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles-in-spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    My Neighbour
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner Of Jesus Christ
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Restoration
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove-tuesday
    Silent-witness
    Small-c
    Small-graces
    Sore-afraid
    Squat
    Starting With What Is True
    Street Food
    Superstar
    Take-a-punch
    Takedown
    Talking-head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling-the-story
    Thanksgiving
    The-best-for-last
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    Thecrossingking
    The Evil Day
    The-general
    The Great Mystery
    The-joys-of-hash
    Themysteryofthecheshirecat
    The-particularity-of-place
    The-quickening
    Therefore-choose-life
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Lazarus Knew
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Woodworking Lessons In Empathy
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ