Leftovers

Being a father of toddlers of almost two years old, we get a lot of little leftovers from going out to eat with them. If you have children, I am sure you know the experience. Guess what they will eat, they fill up on crackers waiting for it, the food comes and they take two bites, they throw it at each other and it gets all over, they get down from the table and eat it off the floor. After that, someone usually comes up to the table and tells us how cute our kids are with the mac and cheese in their nose and ketchup in their hair. Then you look at the three chicken nuggets or whatever is still safe for consumption and tell yourself that we need to take this home because we paid money for it and can’t waste it. Being a single guy in my 30’s, I used to be a master at repurposing leftovers. Now when I look through the fridge, I feel like an archaeologist trying to carbon date the food and justify if it is still edible. My wife is pregnant as of writing this, so she has me smell everything and like my mom said, “If in doubt, throw it out.” In these moments of cleaning out the refrigerator and not only trying to see how old things are, also remember where you were and who you were with when you had that meal. That grilled cheese sandwich with one bite out of it was from the time we met our friends and their family and talked about wedding planning. Those two meatballs are from the lunch we had after church with a new family that came to town and my girls made the sauce look like war paint.  

Looking around my office I have similar things that remind me of people or events. Not talking about food lying around, just little trinkets or things I have collected to remember something or someone. My wife calls it clutter; I call it conversation pieces. Losing grandparents and going through their house you find lots of ‘leftovers’ that probably meant a lot to them. Ticket stubs, pictures, jewelry, letters, things you wonder why they kept, but you knew there had to be a story behind it. My dad Fred recently went through his father’s office and it took a while. Not just to box up, but to try and reflect on the meaning of everything and why it was there. There are a couple of things we have no clue what they are and I could use some help identifying them if you ever stop by my office in Bruning.  

What I have learned from all these exercises in life is that it is not usually the most expensive things in life that bring meaning to your life. 

“The most beautiful things are not associated with money; they are memories and moments. If you don’t celebrate those, they can pass you by.”- Alek Wek -

This quote also reminded me of all the pictures we found of Frank and Mary Bruning, my grandparents who have passed. My dad made a comment, “It looks like they partied all the time.” Looking at these pictures you would see groups of people smiling, dressed up appropriately for the season and occasion, enjoying food, beverages, and most of all each other’s company. They celebrated everything, from birthdays, a new shed being built, years at a job, and sometimes it was just getting together for no reason but to look at the cows and talk about old times. I remember being in the room with them as they talked about experiences together, past friends, and of course the same old jokes they repeated. These were their happy leftovers that reminded them of where they were and who they were with. They weren’t discarded, they kept getting replayed like the old records on the turn table and every scratch meant something along the way.  
This has been a good lesson for me and my growing family. Celebrate everything you can. My wife has a ‘party drawer’ full of hats, candles, plates, and napkins. Last night, we stuck a candle in a candy bar as my twin daughters sang happy birthday to me with their ‘happy’ hats. We have pulled these items out from time to time for an impromptu birthday party for friends of ours that didn’t plan on doing anything for their birthday. It was a bit embarrassing at first for them, but it gives you something to remember. And you cannot stop a toddler from singing happy birthday, it makes anyone smile. The most memorable things in my life have been lunch, or dinner with old friends talking about our times together. Most of the time it was something we thought was completely uneventful or silly, but it was out of the ordinary and it marked a time in our past. 

The next time you clean out your fridge make sure you take a moment to reflect on where that moldy half eaten chicken strip came from. I am sure you will have a story about it. 
“We didn’t realize we were making memories; we just knew we were having fun.”- A.A. Milne

-    Adam Bruning, Loan Officer