It's the people

A week ago today I decided to make some special cookies that I haven't made in many years.  I creamed the butter and sugar and reached up to open the cabinet for a measuring cup.

As the door to the cupboard opened, the shelf collapsed and in one of those slow motion moments while I watched and tried, ineffectually, to catch one thing or another, all my good cups, several of my good glasses and one of my mixing bowls cascaded out of the cabinet and onto the counter top and floor!

Some of the pieces landed twenty feet away in the living room!  I picked up cup handles out of my recliner and pieces of china out of the Christmas tree!  It was a mess.  Looking down at the bowl of cookie dough I saw shards of porcelain and glass sticking out like shiny bits of candy, but probably worst of all was my new phone.  The front was shattered!

It's been kind of a rough week.  Turns out my phone cannot be repaired and it wasn't insured, but my landlord did offer me his old smart phone which I thought was very generous.  I made more cookies and while I didn't go to extremes to ice them, they tasted good.  It was comical when I offered my guests hot cocoa and told them I didn't want any.  They guessed that I didn't have enough cups, but I got a new mug for Christmas.

In the end, though, I realized that as big a mess as it was and as expensive as it was, in the grand scheme of things it was not so big after all.  I've had a lot of love from people this week and not one of them cared if I had a nice phone or enough cups or if those cups matched. 

It's not the stuff in life that matters.  It's the people. And as trite as that may sound it is the truth.