Just a couple of pieces of old furniture

"Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less."

 ~ C.S. Lewis

For the last 35 years, Susan and I have had these matching night tables. They were not new when we got them ,however not having any kind of bedroom set they served us well. Yes the corners were more than just dinged up. Yes they didn't match anything else in the room. Still they seemed to work just fine. Susan's had a lamp on top of it as well as her alarm clock. Mine was the place where I would empty my pockets every evening and stand my water bottle (I get thirsty at night!).The four draws in each have been the home for ours socks and underwear for decades.

A few months ago,the front of the top draw on my side fell off..No big deal. I still had 3 more draws. When the draws on Susan's nightstand started to come apart, I started hearing grumblings like "we need new night stands!"

Given all of the other new things that we need but can't afford like an oven,a refrigerator,and new living room furniture,night stands for our bedroom were certainly not on my priority list.This was more than a few dollars. The stuff that we liked and that would work were in the hundreds.

I came up with an alternative that would more than make do for the time being and yesterday I took care of that. The replacement units look great, and serve us nicely.I emptied the draws of my night stand and proceeded to drag it down to the curb. Susan will be able to do the same with hers and by Tuesday there will be a pair of more than slightly used night tables at the curb.

As I pulled up the driveway this morning, I saw my nightstand sitting curbside and I became more than just sad It's not that these pieces of furniture were collectibles. True we had had them for 35 years. 35 years with a lot of memories,including raising a family.It was something else.Oh, did I forget to mention that for 35 years before we owned them they were part of my parent's bedroom?pieces of the bedroom set my mom and dad purchased when they got married 70 years ago. They were the least remaining pieces of the set that dad and I, back in 1971,stripped,washed,mended and refinished in the basement,a project that took us months, not weeks as we painfully reconstructed broken corners and stripped down this really really dark wood ,bleaching it to its natural color and then refinishing them to look brand new and completely different.

I am not one to get nostalgic over stuff.It's just stuff,clutter,things.

This feels a bit different though.These nightstands feel like something else.

Or maybe not. Maybe they're just a couple of old pieces of furniture.