Junk Drawer

JUNK DRAWER

is Razmataz's photo challenge this week.

My best friend's daughter is a fabric artist in Vancouver.  She once created a whole series of work based on this topic.  Erin believes that you can see who someone is through their Junk Drawer.

She created a piece from this collection as a wedding gift for my daughter and-son-in-law.  It depicted Nelson's pocket full of the junk of their new life in the making.  Beautiful.

Erin says her mother's junk drawer is her car.  I have travelled in this vehicle many times, and as pristine as this woman is, she doesn't hesitate to throw her finished Tim Horten's coffee cup or muffin wrapper on the floor.  She half-jokingly adds you could pretty much find a full-meal in front of the passenger seat.

You see, my friend Petra is one of the most generous-hearted people I know.  She spends a lot of time in her car, driving from activities to volunteer work; trips to spend time with her mother or to visit with me; and then there are the times she willingly loans her car to one of her kids.  I know if I phoned her right now and just said "come", she would be behind the wheel in a flash...no questions asked.
I believe her junk-drawer-car is evidence of her unfaltering generosity.

Ever since Erin's project, I've thought a lot about this topic and I can genuinely say

I don't have a junk drawer. 

I've moved home so many times that I have a curious relationship with stuff.  I only have space in my heart and my home for the precious.  If it doesn't have meaning for me, I get rid of it.  If it's important, I file it, if it's not, I trash it.  You could go through every handbag I own, every pocket of every article of clothing I have and you would find ...nothing.

I make my husband very nervous a lot of the time about this.  He has junk drawer after junk drawer.  He keeps everything, every silly piece of paper, every faded-so-much-you-can't-read-it-receipt...probably in direct reaction to how much I toss.

I'm still not exactly sure what my lack of a Junk Drawer says about me, something about space and freedom, maybe even secrecy...I'm not sure.  I'm still trying to figure that, and a lot of other things, out about myself.

Thanks Chania...once again, you've made me think, long and hard.

Oh, and the picture, that's my best friend Petra.