Post Number Thirty-Nine
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 07:06PM 
Past Due
Terry is way ahead of me on this. She has been after me to begin going through the piles of accumulated stuff. She wants me to shed unneeded documents, books, and accumulated AC chargers that no longer have a device to charge. She has been at this task for over a year. We can now see the floor of our basement because of Terry's efforts. Today I joined her. I have worked all day to shed the detritus in my home office. I have looked at every item and every paper stashed away on shelves, in boxes, and even in a pile on the floor that has rested undisturbed for four weeks. I now have three, 39 gallon, lawn and leaf bags filled with stuff. I can actually walk into the room and approach my computer without turning sideways or stepping over boxes.
Such a task often presents unexpected consequences. At one point in this process I uncovered a VISA bill that had gone buried in the trash and was now past due. In the midst of all the sorting and throwing out I had to stop immediately and pay this over due bill. I fired up the computer. I called up the secure web page and I made an electronic payment. There. Now back to work.
Or so I thought. As I made my way through paper after paper and notebook after notebook I found other items that required my response. Items that like that VISA bill were long past due. I found Father's Day gifts from Carl and from Mary. These were thoughtful, creative and touching gifts from our children that received a polite thank you at the moment of their giving and then disappeared into the clutter of my doing. One was a pocket certificate of appreciation from Carl and Anna. Another was a spiral book of poems and pictures from Mary entitled A Collection of Life Poems and Other Such for My Daddy. Expressions of love? Certainly, but more. These long buried gifts were also status reports revealing the kind of adults our children had become. These were love filled offerings that I had lost in the clutter of unneeded busyness.
Memo to Carl and Mary and to Anna and Andrew: Please forgive me for allowing the unneeded clutter of my life to delay my expression of love and appreciation for all of you. Nothing in life is more precious than your love, your support, and knowing that you are taking the love you have received from Terry and me out into the world. The present difficulty of Terry's illness is made bearable because I know that you are OK and making a contribution of love to this world. Keep singing. Keep writing. Learn to heal. I will strive to never again allow the clutter of my life to bury my love and appreciation for all of you.
Dave Gladstone, Dad, Dadoo
Reader Comments (2)
Hey Dad. Thanks. And now for the humorous quip...wish you had found some overdue cash in there! :) love ya. Praying for ya.
Keep looking - I did the same clean up a few years ago and found stock certificates we didn't even know we had when our insurance company went public! You never know what else you may find...