Living in a noisy, complex, and increasingly contentious world can leave us feeling more doubtful than hopeful, more distracted than driven, and more exhausted than invigorated. To you, I offer my voice of HOPE. Amongst all of our challenges and difficulties, large and small, I believe with positive constant nourishment we can live actively, purposefully, and hopefully, regardless of our circumstances.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

My perfect Mason Jar



My Grandma Millers Original Blue Mason Jar

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go back home to my small home town where I grew up to recharge my country girl battery (even though I WAS NOT  a cowgirl and only wore Wranglers once on Halloween)   My baby brother got married and I got to meet my brand new little niece and it was wonderful.  I came home with many treasures like Grandma's bread, branches from my birch tree, and some pumpkins from Grandmas garden that I did not bring into California because that would be bad.

Among my treasures was a blue Mason Jar just like the ones they are selling in Michaels now.  My mom had two of them and I was ecstatic when she told me I could take one of them home.  Yes, it's blue and that's cool, yes it's a Mason Jar and I have some kind of affinity towards Mason Jars, but this was so special to me because it was my Grandmothers.  I don't know how long my Grandmother had it or how many things had been canned, eaten, canned, eaten and canned again, but now the treasure was mine.  As I held this jar and scanned it closely I found it to be in perfect condition.  No little nicks or cracks were present and the color was uniform throughout, a kind of green blue icy color.  But the coolest thing was when I saw in the glass it's perfect imperfections.  There was a couple of tiny bubbles in the middle of the glass, a couple of faint lines of air pockets, and I thought "Wow, you can tell it is an original by these faint but beautiful unique imperfections."   

I brought it home and placed it on my counter a little unsure what to do with it.  I don't want to have it out because I don't want it to get broken but I want to have it somewhere I can see it and be reminded of my grandmothers grace and everything amazing my grandparents stood for.  

My "Home" in Plain City, Utah
Today I was showing the jar to a friend and pointing out the tiny imperfections and how I knew that  his jar is authentic because of them, when something dawned on me.  Of all of the things in the world I could consider a treasure I consider this tiny little blue jar with all of it's imperfections one of the most amazing gifts I could have been given because it was a part of of my grandmother  and its little imperfections are what makes it original, it makes it real, it makes it unique.  And so it is with life.  

 We worry about where we are going, what we are doing, what our children our learning and what kind of mark we are leaving on the world. 
When all we really need to be conscious of is one simple thing, which is to simply live authentic.  To allow ourselves to listen to that tiny voice inside of us that tells us we can do things, even if in our head we doubt ourselves.  No one wants any other version of you then your version of you and your version of you is PERFECT.  So be careful as we travel down this road of distraction and opportunity to remember that the only thing our divine creator wants us to be is our beautiful, imperfect, and divine version of ourselves, always and forever!  So hold on to yourselves tight and be careful with yourself because you are precious, you are divine, and you are all that you have got!!!
Thank you Grandma for all of your wisdom and continuing to teach me in your gentle quiet ways, how to be a lady and make it happily back to you.  I love you.
Mindy