Life between the cushions.....

This was an ordinary Saturday morning of hot coffee growing tepid as I putzed around the house, cleaning this, looking at that. I was thinking of recent blog posts from Steph and Michelle, amazed at their willingness to explore and expose their innermost thoughts so freely... As I grabbed the cushion off the couch to fluff it up, something pink caught my eye. It was a plastic camera we had given the kids in Vacation Bible School two years ago. I lifted the cushion further and revealed its cohort, a blue camera. My mind flashed back to Mom's visit that summer, when she and I had spent some really wonderful time together, just sitting side by side on that couch, stringing the cords through the camera loops, prepping them for the kids' Vacation Bible School adventure. It wasn't a momentous occasion, just Mom and me, working on a project together. Dad and I had always done that, but Mom and I? Not much. Maybe that's why that little camera popping up drew out such emotion... Upon further exploration, I found that my couch reveals far more about me than any blog possibly could. When I tugged all the cushions off....

• I found an embarassing amount of crumbs from way too many snacks munched on the couch, along with a few revealing mouse remnants (eeeeeewwwww!). Now I know why Dad was such a stickler about food being eaten in the kitchen, not in the living room.....

• I found a flashlight, probably dropped by Christian or Connor or Cameron in one of their visits...or maybe even by me when I sat on the couch waiting out an electrical outage during a storm...who knows?
• I saw little fur balls collected from blankets or sweaters or whatever else decided to leave a lasting reminder that it was there at some time...and of course, enough Arrow hair to weave a small dog, too!

Then I looked at the tags I had never removed from the couch --- "under penalty of law" --- only to realize after actually reading them for the first time that it's the retailer who can't remove them, not me....duh! (Thought for future consideration: How many other "laws" inhibit my life which have never really been imposed by others, but by my own misguided belief that certain things are expected of me? Hmmm ....) But as I studied the tags more closely to see what they revealed I found that...

• my couch was "born" on September 12, 1996 .... I had missed its 10th birthday!
• Some upholsterer with the initials "T.Y." was evidently having trouble with his pen in September 1996, as he had to scribble to make it work
• And sewer #82 had a big day on September 12, 1996, as he or she sewed at least 3 couches that I know of.....

So many little things had been hidden between the cushions....inconsequential things in themselves, but very revealing when given half a chance of consideration. And it occured to me that the reason those recent blog posts had tugged at me so was because they were looking at life "between the cushions" rather than rushing past, merely accepting things at face value. I love lessons learned on ordinary Saturdays!