Grime

Maybe I really do need to get out more.  I saw something when washing up I had not seen before.  As a part of my routine, I clean and wipe down all the kitchen benches and the stove.
My aim is to have nothing looking like it did the day before.  I don’t want to be able to say, “Oh yes, I remember that grime from yesterday.”  My aim is to make it like a new beginning or a fresh start.
It was while I was wiping one of the benches I had an epiphany (don’t think I have ever used that word before – I had to look up how it was spelt.)  There was some grime on a bench I dealt with and thought “that is like the past and I want no reminders.”
I reckon one of the worst things I could do is surround myself with reminders.  I keep one or two good things of people I have loved and are now gone.   Some people though seem to build shrines.  The past is the present and it keeps the present from being different.
I am dealing with Stu’s estate.  We were close.  I loved him a lot.  But I have moved on.  I will always care and keep a couple of things to come across occasionally that remind me of him.  The best I can do is be thankful for the good times and make more good times with others.
Sure there were bad times.  Disagreements.  Misunderstandings.  Grime.  But I chose to expunge those.  They belong in the past and that is where they stay.  The bench is wiped clean.
I was driving at work one time and another driver did something really stupid in front of me.  I remember my passenger commenting that I did not rail against them.  That was because my first response is always to think that may have been the one silly thing they do that day.  Grime.  I know I am capable of silly things.  I know I am not grime personified and maybe they are not either.  Maybe, but it makes me feel better.  There are others on the road though that I stay away from.  The way they are driving tells me all is not right.
See, washing up is good for a person.  Well, it is where I went with that one anyway.  To me the past is a thing of the past.  I cannot bring it back.  I cannot correct wrongs.  That is why I find it best not to try to relive it.  What’s done is done.  Good and bad.  When the bench is wiped clean of grime there is no reminder.  Just a readiness for something new.