Still Life...

On the corner of the kitchen counter, I deposit my keys, my phone, my wallet.  I empty my pockets of loose change, mechanical pencils, and rubber wine corks.  I take off my jewelry, my rings and my bracelet.  Receipts, to-do lists, bubble-wrap, and plastic baggies accumulate in this place.  If you look at the contents, strewn across the laminate surface, you can read the story of my life, like tea leaves or star charts.  It seems just like clutter.  It seems like just a mess. But the things, the assortment of objects, tell a story.

I would like to think that they tell a story of someone who works hard and always tries his best.  It tells a tale of a person who goes into each day, believing that what he does is done for some greater purpose - one he doesn't understand.  The bracelet he wears does not hide its message, but is stamped out in clear letters.  "Be the change you wish to see in the world."  The band he wears in silver upon his hand is of an endless knot, intertwined lines.  The shape is bent, the details are worn and shiny from daily wear.  It communicates a message of enduring friendship that weathers even the hardest of days.  The green glass, filled with wine says that some things are meant to be cherished and celebrated, and other things are meant to be forgotten.  A quarter, a nickel, a dime and three pennies are a wish for success and prosperity, built on ambition and frugality.  Every penny counts!  The phone several years old, pristine beneath a battered case, conveys a mixed message.  It paints a picture of a slow swimmer in a fast river.  Two beads of little robots whisper words of whimsy and a love of family.  An acorn cap, found on the sidewalk shows an appreciation for the beauty of nature.  A newly minted key shows signs of trust of new beginnings.  A bottle cap, a piece of tin foil, a scratched CD, and used wine corks implies that there is value in all things and that with a little bit of elbow grease and imagination, "trash" can be turned into treasure.  The "clutter" reveals creativity and a willingness to search to find, a belief in spontaneity and an acknowledgement that life is not perfect.  Life is full of surprises.  The things form a still-life of a life not so still.