Games

Yesterday for Day #2 of 40 Bags in 40 Days, I organized two common room shelves  that were stuffed with papers and board games. Now it's so cleannnnn! 

I've always enjoyed board games. There aren't very many things I love more than having friends over for dinner and a game night. 

When I was little, my grandmother had these two ornate end tables stuffed full of games. She had some serious classics - Yahtzee, Teeterflips, Skunk....I would crack them open and take in the comforting scent of the aged paper and wooden pieces. Of course, I had no idea how to play the actual games, but I would send the chess pieces on elaborate adventures and arrange the cards into hearts and flowers. 

I'm such a daydreaming nerd. I would be entertained for hours. 

My mother resented my playing with the games, because whenever I played, I tended to wander. Pieces drifted away and with little supervision, the decades-old amusements would be parsed out to come to live under the bed, inside of my Barbie dream house or maybe accidentally in the trash.

Today, the strong majority of our board games come from thrift stores. Why? Because I let Sam and Charlotte wander. If Dizzy Dizzy the Dinosaur chooses to hang out with the hippos that are hungry hungry for the Hi Ho Cherry-Os, then that is fine. They all turn up again anyhow on vacuuming days, and how I envy those two kids when they enter that magical, free world of play.

Life is a game. A lot of times it feels like pieces are missing. I get so close to the finish line of a particular struggle and then suddenly get kicked back to Start again. 

I live my life like the game Perfection. All of the pieces need to fit right now....or else everything will burst out into a noisy mess I won't be able to clean up again. There's a timer and I need to keep a frantic pace. 

This belief: False. 

We unearthed some paint by number cards the other day. I want my life to replicate that instead. Slow, steady, taking each color with His guidance and following the path HE has laid out with the goal of coloring me beautiful. 

We also found a scrabble game, very obviously from the ornate end tables of my grandmother. I have no idea how it found its way two hours north and into my living room. 

Of course, there were missing pieces. 

Enough though to work with and make beautiful things. Not necessarily the outcome I want.....but maybe it's better that way.