Squirrel Stashes and Vocations

At Trail Life last week, after dumping a Trader Joe's bag full of paper towel and toilet paper tubes around the room for my Fox Patrol kids to "gather" as firewood for a pretend campout activity, one of the dads started teasing me that we sure did go through a lot of toilet paper. Another dad quickly jumped in and said, "Toilet paper rolls are standard crafting supply!" It's true. I have a cabinet behind my toilet that I put the empty rolls into until it's full--so I almost always have a solid supply of them for any given craft or activity I might "need." It's a weird shaped cabinet and doesn't fit anything else, so it just made sense for me.

It occurred to me in that moment that perhaps other people don't store away random junk (like toilet paper and paper towel rolls) like squirrels stashing away nuts for future crafting opportunities. Do you guys do this? 

No, just me then? Cool.

In our current culture celebrating minimalism and tinyhouses and fad-fashion, I have often been a little disquieted when I see people purging all their stuff. Don't get me wrong, I despise clutter--I am a top-tier, OCD, Goodwill-giving, champion organizer; but I don't think anyone by any stretch of the imagination will ever consider my lifestyle, "minimalist." Hopefully neat and tidy and organized, but minimal? No. 

I believe that more is more. Every day is an occasion. Go big or go home! Oh wait, I am home. 

The funny part is, I wouldn't call myself a crafter. I mean, I've met real crafters (Hey, mom!) and I can spot them a mile away--they're the ladies digging through the clearance at Michaels or Hobby Lobby and leaving the store with a cart full of fabulous miscellany and ephemera that somehow cost less than $25--while I have my one or two items that I specifically needed for this project and it somehow cost me $82, even with that 40%-off coupon. I hide my receipt in shame. I know that at their homes, these gals have closets (or entire rooms) dedicated to their craft; walls festooned with options for every idea that pops into their heads, and a constant breaking of boundaries in time and space of possibilities in creating...all the things. 

I also wouldn't call myself a real artist. Or a real designer. Or gardener. I mean, I sometimes even doubt that I'm a real homeschool mom! Not to say that I'm an imposter in any of those things--maybe I just don't feel that I've devoted enough time/energy/commitment to any of those things to merit the title.

 I like to dabble in crafts, and I dabble in art, and I dabble in design...and music...and academia...and gardening...my mother would say that my interests are an inch deep and a mile wide. Sometimes I even obsess over those things, and it's fair to say that they have a constant tab open in my brain, as it were.

I do identify with artists, creators, designers, crafters, and educators in that I'm constantly aware of possibilities. I think this is a key trait in whatever craft you pursue, to always have an undercurrent in your mind of opportunities to practice, expand, implement, or feed into your craft. I see a broken cabinet on the curb, my husband already knows I'm going to have him turn around so I can hop out and scope that sucker to see if it can be turned into something. I don't need it (or do I?!) but it obviously has possibilities. Hence, stashes of toilet paper rolls.

It made me so happy when, on Chip and Joanna Gaines's Fixer Upper show, they show Joanna's warehouse of stuff...possibilities...that she keeps for her projects. My husband literally turned to me and said, "That's what you want, isn't it?" Yup, babe, that is it exactly. I want a warehouse (or silo?!) to store all the options for infinite possibilities. Alas, we are not Chip and Joanna Gaines. 

So I do it in my own little way. I have my greenhouse full of possibilities for my garden, and I have my craft room--er, I mean homeschool room--full of art supplies and craft supplies and educational supplies for possibilities in all those things, and I have Pinterest boards full of design ideas, and I have my party bin(s) full of options for decorating for various parties...

Maybe that is one of the dividing lines between just doing a job and having a vocation or calling. If it's hovering on the edge of your mind all the time, and you lose track of time wallowing in every delicious detail of what you're doing...you might have found your vocation. Some people might call that obsessing, but that's just because it's not their calling. 

I have three takeaways from these thoughts. 

First, as Christians, we should develop the calling and vocation in our lives of Christ, and serving Him. In other words, whatever we obsess over, we should be obsessing over Jesus first and most. Our lives should be marked with a constant undercurrent of prayer, of serving the Lord, of being an ambassador of Christ, and of pursuing holiness and sanctification in faith and grace and the Gospel. If you see that you have a calling in some area (or perhaps you have been gifted in something), see how you can adjust the focus of that as unto the Lord, and be growing and serving Him, turning that passion and obsession to something of ultimate and lasting value--not just to tickle your fancy. By turning your focus rightly to God, you can use the momentum of your natural inclinations to help propel you as you are a pilgrim in this unholy land. (I'm not saying to serve in your flesh and without the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm saying to do everything unto the Lord). If we obsess over anything, let it be Christ, and His kingdom to come and will to be done.

Second, don't let yourself be swept up into fads. Maybe it's my great-depression-era grandma talking, but you don't have to have a picture-perfect, magazine-quality home and lack-of-stuff. You live here, you have your stuff to do--so make your home comfortable and functional for you (See the picture of my boys' room, below? Literally the only time it has ever been this neat and clean was that one moment, 12 months ago, when I cleaned it JUST FOR THAT PHOTO)! It's ok to have stuff just because of the possibilities...within reason. But by the same reasoning, you live here, and it has to function. Don't be so obsessed by possibilities that you drown in stuff that makes living here unbearable. Balance, Christian. Let your focus be on Christ and the calling He gives you, and don't let fear, envy, or any other evil or idolatrous thing be a driving force in your decisions to keep or let go.

Third, give your kids the gift of hobbies. We don't have to be experts to enjoys something (and, to be fair, you become an expert by starting out as a beginner!). I want to talk about this more in another post, so I'll leave it pretty simple here--let your kids dabble and follow interests so that they learn the gift of laboring and then receiving the fruit of their labors (notice I'm not talking about video games, here.) Give them a bit of earth to garden and experiment and fail in. Give them a dinner or dessert to cook. Let them sew, however badly, and create and paint and build and just...experience the possibilities. They might just find their vocation!