Let It Dry

We had our carpets cleaned yesterday--the living room, bedroom, dining room and our closet. Almost all the furniture in those rooms are in the entry hall, hallway, kitchen and our bathroom. Every place we walk is like running an obstacle course. We were instructed by the cleaner person that it would be better to allow two days (yesterday and today) to let the carpet dry thoroughly before we moved everything back into place.For two melancholies (the Florence Littauer definition for perfectionists), it isn't easy living around disorder. We love being able to restore order--quickly and perfectly. But our melancholy needs to be subjected to the wisdom of waiting until the carpet dries.

Isn't that the way we are in our lives? We want everything to be what we think is perfect all the time, and when it isn't, we try to find a way to make it happen--fast. Thinking about this reminded me of what James told us. Trials (having the carpet cleaned is a trial) tests our faith which produces patience (we want to put everything back into place NOW), which produces a perfect work (no wood stains on wet carpet.) In his words, after we let that happen then we are perfect and complete--mature. Maturity is not rushing our lives, but being able to wait for the perfect time, for the perfect event to take place even when we think we know how it should work and can think of a myriad of ways to make that happen. Today, maturity for us is letting the carpet dry.

Maybe we should think about letting the "carpet dry" more often.