I read last week about a lady who had something bad happen to her years ago. She never got over it and she wrote how it was tucked away mentally in her desk drawer… that got me thinking.  Don’t we all have a mental desk drawer?  Hopefully, we have drawers full of good stuff, but isn’t there a place we tuck away memories we wish we could forget?  Why do we keep them?  We’re just so human, y’all.

Go with me here and imagine a big study with rich warm wood walls, shelves of books, a fireplace, and a beautiful mahogany desk there for you, your favorite spot.  And from that vision comes this…. I hope you’ll read on.  

She sat down at her desk and opened up the drawer, 
looking for the cards she planned to write.
And that’s when she saw it, tucked in the back, 
the folder she’d always pushed out of sight. 

She stared at it for the longest time 
having flashbacks in her mind, 
it held all the things she wanted to forget, 
memories that had been unkind.

But before she could move, those old memories,
escaped and swirled around her face,
why had she kept them, for now here they were,
escaping into this place. 

At last, she cried out, “Dear God!”,”
and the memories, they dropped to the floor,
and His still calm voice said just loud enough,
‘Don’t tuck them away anymore.

They do you no good, they’re all in the past,
so why would you want to recall,
toss them in the fire over there,
make ashes of them all.’

So she picked them up one by one
and walked over to the fireplace there,
each one she tossed, she watched them burn,
and lighter felt the air.

As the blaze died down, so did the fear
of all that she’d held in her grasp,
then she sat at her desk and smiled so sweet,
that old desk drawer was empty at last.  

Written 02.11.24

@traceykingrice2024