Hear Ye
Meet my MAC makeup pouch (is that what they’re even called??)
In the summer of 2006 I was dumped. To clarify, he actually beat around the bush for two weeks until I basically asked him to say it already. So in clarifying, you now know I basically dumped myself.
Proceeding, I decided to call in to work that day and instead went solo to the movies to see A Devil Wears Prada. On my self loathing walk home, I wandered into a the joy and shimmer that is a MAC store and went on to blow a month’s rent. Yes. A few new eyeshadows, makeup brushes, blush, lipwear and other odds and ends later I was left rent-less and with pricey makeup to toss into my pricey new makeup pouch.
This was not a good idea by any means and I’m thankful for the day I went home to visit family and friends shortly after this dismal event at which time I broke down and told my mom everything. She was EXTREMELY understanding about me hardly having anything to show for kissing my rent goodbye. Thanks, mom! I’ll pay the forgiveness forward to Addison one day!
So, what’s my point? 15+ years have passed and I finally have discarded this piece of anti-nostalgia.
I never looked at the ol’ pouch as a reminder of an absolute crap day of heartbrokenness, shame, unworthiness. Sure, I’ve gone over the day many a time in my head when looking at this black pouch but life obviously went on and that’s all it remained, simply a bad day, unlike the multitude of blessed ones I’ve had since.
I think we all have a lot of baggage we look back on that may or may not carry a lot of weight on our lives, even today. The fresher the baggage, the harder it is to call it ONLY a bad day. I believe that’s okay, friends. We’re often expected to put it in the past but I think there’s something healthy to being reminded of the difficulties without being consumed by the memory of them. We are asked to be thankful to God for the good and bad, no? To see the most horrific days and find the means to use them in His glory. I recently read I Will Carry You by Angie Smith dealing with the imminent loss of her daughter, Audrey. This isn’t a book about complete mourning through and through. It is so much more about strength, looking to God, and primarily about the lives that Audrey has touched and continues to touch, even in her death.
We never forget dire circumstances. We tend to bear them in some form. But a day comes when the weight seems to be lifted a bit more and we’re better able to see through the pain. Goodness begins to surpass the struggle.
I won’t forget this useful little pouch. I held my finest, most expensive makeup in this bag for years. For all the sad memories it bore, it also helped me to heal, possibly the most expensive day of self therapy wrapped up into this pouch. My life turned out pretty amazing so far. I’d say the goodness surpassed the struggle making it easier to let go of this representation of a bad day I overcame but won’t soon forget. Why should I forget? It was a part of my life that got me here.










