Saturday, July 30

In Depth Look into Miss Jean Louise

Miss Jean Louise’s ability to understand what we treasure is unique to the world.  In her Facebook bio she states:

“If you have one thing you hold dear, you have too many things. Just drop a few and see what breaks - those are what you needed. Pick them up and re-assemble them but not in the same order. You will enjoy them more.”

To the untrained eye, this sounds ludacrise and confusing. But I implore you to take a step back and listen to what she is actually saying.

We’ll start with the third point. ‘Those are what you needed.’ What breaks is what you hold most dear in life. If it wasn’t precious, special and important, it wouldn’t be fragile. Are your friendships so strong they won’t crack or break under pressure? The ones that could crack are often the ones we need the most. If your actions have no consequences to your friends, are they actually your friends?  Think it over.

Now, point 1. “If you have only one thing you hold dear, you have too many things.” When you look around you, if you can point to only one thing that’s important, one relationship or piece of clothing that you will do anything to keep sacred, there is a problem. Chances are, you have more than that, but there are so many you can’t see the forest through the trees.

This leads us to the forth point. “Pick them up and re-assemble them but not in the same order.” Madness you say? No, far from it. Instead, you have watched as something important slipped away from you and shattered into a million pieces. Yes, you could just build it up the same, but it would now be flawed and a constant reminder of what you lost. Instead, take it and rebuild it into something new. There may be pieces you thought important, that you now discover aren’t! Toss them away, keep what matters.

Point 5, “You will enjoy them more” Hot on the heels of reassembling those pieces is what you have afterward. Something new and fresh, made from something old and comforting. Perhaps a friendship that went through some ups and downs, before settling into a new element, or a vase that has a new life as a plate. How often did you use that vase? Be honest with yourself. Now, how often have you used the plate? Yes! There, right there is the answer!

Finally, we end of point 2. “Just drop a few and see what breaks…” No, Miss Jean Louise isn’t asking you to drop your friends, or break things off with them. Instead, its about the hard times we all go through and deal with. The difficulty that life throws at us. When you experience those, see what friends go through the fall with you, who breaks and who bounces away. If they break by your side, they were willing to take the fall. And from there, you have learned who matters to you and can rebuild into something stronger.

Life is about the breaks and cracks that happen. Miss Jean Louise points out how important it is to see beyond the cover art of life and dig into the actually book it presents. It is this aspect that inspires you to move forward through the curveballs, the missed chances, the pokemon that ran away and the rain drops that got through the umbrella. Maybe, those are the important moments that you would have missed out on, had you not listened to her and ‘dropped’ a few things.

Kristy C