Dumpster Diving

He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.

Proverbs 21:23

Yesterday  instead of enjoying the day, I was a house cleaning tornado. I blew the place to bits, claiming as victim the relaxing Sunday my family could have enjoyed. 

During my ridiculousness, the kitchen island seemed to be the eye of the storm. Seeing it cluttered, I called my children to the kitchen and began expounding on the evils of disorganization. While lecturing, I began indiscriminately scooping up piles of papers, shoving them into the garbage while saying, "If they were left here, I guess no one needs them!" I covered all the "Moms' Greatest Hits" and I was obnoxious. Yes, the kitchen deserved some attention, but my family didn't deserve my sharp tongue or my angry eyes. 

Fast forward to early this morning when I sat down to finish some very important paperwork. Fast forward to me not being able to find said paperwork. I looked on my desk. Not there. I looked in my filing cabinet, not there.  

Remaining calm, I walked to the kitchen hoping to find it on, yes, you guessed it, the ISLAND! Realization then came, and calm left. The papers had been on the island, the very same island I'd cleared during my shaming rant. Making my stomach sink further, the kitchen garbage had already been emptied into the community dumpster. To make the rest of this disgusting story short, let's just say I spent my morning dumpster diving in a public trash repository. Because of my rashness, because of my annoyance, I spent the morning in putrescence.  

Ironic isn't it? Yesterday I chose gracelessness, today I sorted through a pile of trash. Yesterday I treated my family like garbage, today I was literally knee deep in it. Funny how this always seems to happen, isn't it? So here's a little advice from my morning misadventure, when you're tempted to give free reign to your tongue, picture used coffee filters and half empty cans of cream of chicken soup. Next time you feel the urge to give garbage rather than grace, think of me and my dumpster diving Monday.  

PS. If this doesn't stop you, let me suggest some Vicks under the nose. It masks the smell. If you choose to mess around with garbage you're eventually going to need it.