Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
That drawer
Just about everyone has at least one space that used to be a empty drawer. It’s usually in a spot accessible to all, and seemingly overnight it becomes…the junk drawer. It might have started out as the ziploc bag repository, with its various boxes tucked neatly in a little row. Somehow, over time, the household denizens add random things until the space is completely full and closing it is sometimes a challenge. When an object does not have a clear and present use, into the junk drawer it goes.
Ours is in the kitchen. It holds plastic utensils from carry-out orders, assorted twist ties, packets of salt and sugar, random receipts from last year, one lone vinyl glove, the really old church directory, an unidentifiable key, a booklet about an old appliance, and so on. It’s the kind of drawer that is essential for putting things that don’t have a specific place to live.
The other night I was at loose ends. Nothing good was on TV, I couldn’t find one of the books that I’m reading, and it was really too early to go to bed. I sat down at my little desk. The desktop holds books, my happy lamp, a holder packed with various important papers, my computer, and a picture of Jan and me in New Mexico with the white rocks of Abiquiu in the background. There’s also a cloth doll that Jackie brought me from one of her trips to Africa, and a picture of me holding Cameron when he was still a baby and his little head had a party of curls on the very top.
Unsure of why I sat down at the desk I thought about a couple of useful things I could do. There’s a half-done treasurer’s report for the next church board meeting. Also, I am working on a writing assignment from my OA sponsor. Neither of those appealed to me at the moment. Then I made the mistake of opening my personal junk desk drawer.
It was suddenly very clear what my assignment was. I have been putting off cleaning out the drawer. Instead I’ve cleaned off the top of my desk by depositing assorted papers into the drawer. It is not a small drawer either, so there were months of documents squirreled away in it. And a bunch of other stuff that has accumulated for the last five years, artfully hidden under about a ream of what used to be a tree.
I started out on my adventure by removing a stack of paper about 6 inches thick. As if on an archaeological dig, I started at the top of the pile, carefully peering at each piece of paper. Keep? Pitch? What fresh hell is this? (Dorothy Parker quote), Why did I save this? How old is this? Gradually my little waste can filled with paper. Some things got filed in the file drawer – oh, man, I need to work on this drawer too…
Suddenly a treasure trove of stuff emerged from underneath the paper mountain. Oh look! There’s Jan’s notary stamp! Oh-oh, my passport expires next year and it’s not too soon to renew it, since I heard that it’s taking months to get a new passport. Here’s an old receipt for a donation to my old stomping grounds: the Amigos Center Immigration Law office, where I cut my teeth on a whole new world of learning 8 years ago and where I met my wonderful friend, Lindsay, immigration attorney extraordinaire. Well, here’s where the packing tape ended up! And the exacto knife, and, and, and. After an hour of a job well done I was satisfied with my day’s end and I toddled off to bed.
I hope this little blog about nothing much sparks an interest in rummaging through your junk drawer. You never know what treasures you might uncover!