Oct

Crafting Again

About 4 days after Mom died, my husband, Dan, decided to clean out our storeroom.

Boo.

Our storeroom would now actually be a “store” room.

Food storage.

But what to do with all the stuff that was in the room before? The boxes of memorabilia and photos, now piled high in our entry way, left me feeling overwhelmed. Although Dan promised to purchase shelves to organize my large stash, quite honestly, the piles left me more than a little bit upset with my husband.

I had just lost my mother. How did he expect me sort through all this stuff? Where in the heck was I going to put shelves? What in the heck was he thinking? These were the thoughts I had.

The boxes sat there for a good two weeks. Piled high, just as he had left them.

Normally, messes sort of drive me crazy, but this mess — I just did not care. When people came over, I simply said, “Ignore the mess.” And I meant it.

I was actually kind of OK with the mess.

Kind of.

So, two weeks went by and I finally decided to start sorting through the boxes. Suddenly, I was in love with my husband again. He had given me this amazing gift. He had felt a prompting and listened. I needed to go through those boxes.

There were so many memories…so much of my mother. So much that, now that my mother had died, seemed very, very important. I found letters, pictures, journals, and scrapbook pages…precious items that I had forgotten about…memories renewed.

And the best thing happened:

I remembered why it was so important for me to scrapbook, why I love to scrapbook.

Because I want to remember this “good life” and I want the people I love to remember too.

Once the last box was organized and put away neatly on a shelf, I headed back upstairs and opened the door to my craft room. I cannot say just how therapeutic scrapbooking has been for me.

I started with a layout of my mother…I needed to. It was hard and I cried. A lot. But I am so grateful for this hobby that I love — for the memories that someday I will leave behind for those that I love.

I am grateful that my husband decided to clean out the storeroom.