Spilled Salt and the Story of Life

I just wanted a little salt for my hard boiled eggs. That’s it. So I reached for the salt shaker in the cupboard and then the bottom fell out.

Kind of like life, right? You’re just going about your day and then sometimes, the bottom falls out. All the pieces of your life spill out around you. And you’re left standing there, looking at the mess and wondering where to start to get it whole again.

Do you start with this mess in the cupboard where the bottom started to fall out? Or the counter where the majority of the mess is? Or do you start on the floor where the residual mess fell? And does it matter at all where you start? Maybe you just pick a spot and start; instead of standing still looking at the mess, swearing and waiting for someone else to clean it up.

And then there’s this. Perhaps, this was your favorite salt shaker of all time and in addition to a mess that needs cleaning up, you have a broken heart needing mending. And so, your back against the wall, you slide down to the floor. In the middle of the mess, resting your head in your hands…and you just cry. You cry because your heart hurts and there’s so much work to do to fix it. And you’ve just had enough.

You feel so alone.

But then…just like the salt shaker, you realize you too are broken and messy and spread out everywhere. How do you get yourself back? How do you heal? Where do you start?

The thing is, it’s probably different for each of us. Where we start healing and how. The length of time it takes for each of us to clean up our mess is a wide spectrum of time. And that’s okay. Because we are each unique and different and beautiful and full of our own heartbreaks. And we are not alone in our messes.

So maybe, even if we are busy cleaning up our own mess, we pause and place a hand on someone else’s shoulder, while they’re looking down at their mess. And we remind them it doesn’t matter where they start healing. That they start wherever it is right for them. The cupboard, the counter, or the floor. That no matter where and how they start, the fact is, they are starting.

And that is what’s most important.