Yesterday while I was out walking, something came to mind. We can only look back and remember the past. We can’t look forward and see the future. We can imagine what the future will be like, but we can only be 100% certain about that which has been.
I’m 51 now. When I’m 81, 51 is going to sound so young. Thirty more years of experiences will have passed. It made me reflect on what was going on in my life 30 years ago. I was 21. Wow! I was YOUNG. I was excited. I was soon to be engaged and while I didn’t know what the future held, it certainly appeared wonderfully happy.
Bear in mind that Mike and I hardly had two beans to rub together. He had been working at the YMCA on Queen Victoria St, earning a missionary salary – it wasn’t very much. I was a student midwife and earning even less. I had a car that was partially paid for. Mike had a toaster and an iron. I had an iron as well. Mike had a guitar and I think he had kettle as well. That was pretty much the sum of our possessions. I lived in the nurse’s home and he was living at the Y. We had no furniture.
When we got engaged, the great “spending spree” began. Mike had some savings and boy did we stretch them. We bought everything second hand except a rug for the lounge. Mike’s Mom said, ‘you can buy everything second hand except the bed.’ Oops! Mike had just bought a second hand queen size bed for R100. We slept on it for about 10 years.
They were dizzy days. We got to know Cape Town by where we bought things. We still sometimes refer to areas by the second hand purchases we made in those days. “It’s in Kenilworth,” I’ll say, “close to where we got the washing machine,” or, “You know up there on the mountainside where we bought that second hand lounge suite for R99.” That lounge suite was in a terrible state. But Mike had great renovation skills. We went off to OK Bazaars in the Golden Acre and bought 10m of cheap fabric (On sale at 99c per metre). Mike recovered the lounge suite with it, while I used an ancient Singer sewing machine and in a very amateur fashion, ran up matching curtains. That lounge suite lasted us several years. We bought a stove for R30 and a beautiful dining room suite for a couple of hundred. The lady who sold that to us, loved that we were engaged and buying for our first home. She gave us a generous discount. The washing machine was not working – it was given to us for free. (Thanks Ann!) Mike fixed it and we spend a memorable evening sitting in the courtyard at the Y watching it do a load of washing for us! We were thrilled!
I was a happy and excited 21 year old, but I also lacked confidence and felt unaccepted by some of my and Mike’s peers. That’s where the important part of looking back comes in. I needn’t have worried. Everything would be okay. So surely the things I worry about today fall into the same category. When I look back at 51, I will wonder why I worried about anything – everything will be okay.
I was trying to find something that we bought second hand 30 years ago, but alas, over the years, all has been donated. The only things that have survived are those things that Mike made. A handy craftsman, he made three wall units which today still carry books. He also made this…it’s a writing bureau which stands right behind where I am sitting.
The Bible verse on our wedding invitation was Psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house the builders labour in vain.
It’s been a great reminder for us to keep asking God to be prime Builder Number 1 in our house, so all our labour is fruitful and not in vain.
These are the days.
I will enjoy each one.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂