This morning I wrote a post about yesterday’s 60 Minutes segment with Andy Rooney.  As the day went on, I began to think about how a kitchen gadget drawer is a lot like life and parenting.  We accumulate “stuff” during our life…material things like cars, homes, appliances, clothing, lamps, and books…sometimes doubles and triples of items we don’t even use.  We store up memories, both good and bad (the bad ones sometimes haunting us as we try to move forward with our lives).  We hold on to feelings, even the negative ones (sometimes especially the negative ones).  And, when it comes to parenting, we often repeat behaviors of our own parents we swore we would never do.  Have you ever said something to your child and looked around to see if your mother was standing there, because what came out of your mouth was something you had often heard her say.

I think this happens to most of us.  Maybe I can take Andy Rooney’s advice and dump out everything in the drawer (of my behavior, reactions to others, feelings, memories), look it over, and make sure I want to keep it before I put it back. 

But I doubt it will be as easy as cleaning the kitchen gadget drawer.