Empty Shelves

Today I am grateful for rest and comfort after a full and tiring day. I am also grateful for opportunities to be surprised in any given day. Paying attention leads to surprises.

That local Target store I mentioned yesterday is closing permanently in a couple weeks. We were sure bummed to hear that, preferring Target in many ways over other options. It's five minutes from our house. It's familiar. We know what to find where. It's closing. Permanently.

Yes, we will have other options close by, and more Target stores a few miles to the north or west. But it won't be the same or as convenient. In the whole scheme of things, a first-world problem for sure.

Yet, there is a sadness as we walk into the store and see the growing open spaces and empty shelves. Empty shelves that won't be replenished or restocked. It makes me think about random things like my mom's memory and how parts of it are empty shelves while others remain full. Or how we all have dreams we have put on the shelf as life took over.

Is your dream shelf empty because they all came true? Is it empty because you gave up and toppled the shelf yourself to rid it of dream reminders you didn't want anymore? Is it, like me, some of both?

What if we got a shelf for each year of our lives? Are my shelves brimming with life and love, or broken and buckling from burdens placed there?

I would like to think that I have a strong base and each additional shelf, or row of shelves, is made stable with more joys than sorrows, more growing than diminishing.

What will I add or take away from my shelves today? How about you?