Our old home was destroyed by flood; we decided to tear it down and rebuild. Our builder was delightful but we had to have more than a couple of “conversations.” For instance. we loved our old house and wanted many of our “old” things to be installed in our “new” house. To be honest, we rebuilding out of necessity not to change our decor. His way of working was to order all new things. In the end, he came around and installed many of our “old” items.

At one point, we were discussing lighting. I laughed when he told us, “Don’t forget – you have a lighting allowance.” We reminded him who was paying that “allowance” and he, again, understood.

We had three beautiful lighting fixtures that we wanted in the public spaces of the new house. We carefully removed and stored them before the old house was torn down. We then waited 5 long years to get into our new home. (Again, a story for another day.) When it was time to rehang the fixtures, we set them out for the installer. I knew that two were the same and one was different. The unique one went over the foyer – easy. But half of the pendants that hang down from the two light fixtures were missing.

I searched and searched. I found a large bag of prisms (had no clue where those had come from) but could not find all of the pendants for the two light fixtures. (You are probably already ahead of me!)

It was about two weeks of searching before it struck me that, when hanging in our “old” house, the two fixtures must have had different pendants; one had the ones we had in hand and the other had displayed the prism pendants. Amazing how after you have seen something in your house for over 20 years, you have taken the time to take it down and to store it and yet you don’t remember the details.

Because we would be using the two fixtures fairly near each other they needed to be identical. The frames were identical and I thought it would easy to find more pendants to match the ones we liked. Nope! They were impossible to find. I did locate an “expert” in our area who suggested that I try Amazon. I found pendants a lot like the ones we already had and ordered them. The new ones are a little smaller and do not have the decorative glass etching. They also came without holes to use in hanging them on the frames.

I got an estimate for drilling holes and the price was ridiculous; I decided to do it myself. After researching how to drill holes in thin glass, I understood the reason for the quoted price.

Today, the new pendants are in a box in our bedroom – still without holes. The two fixtures hang in our home each having exactly one half of the pendants. And, unless, I point it out, not a soul has noticed the missing pendants. (Or perhaps our visitors are too kind to mention it.)

Why am I telling you this lighting challenge story? Two reasons

1. We have faulty memories. Don’t get too excited when others remember things differently than you do. You may both be partly wrong and partly right. Even when holding a bag that contained exactly the number of pendants I needed, I could not believe that we once had a light with prisms on it. We all have faulty memories.
2. Others don’t see always see the things that bother us so very, very much. The lights look beautiful and I may never get around to drilling those holes.

Life is tough enough. Let’s be tough on ourselves with the things that really matter and be easy on ourselves with everything else.

Love,

Jill (just one of God’s kids)

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Now you see it, don’t you? 😃