By Rachel Langston
Not too long ago, my family and I went to a friend’s house for a casual dinner. There were 5 adults, 7 children, and a dog in attendance. It was something we planned (and I use that word loosely) at the last minute. We grilled hot dogs, sent the children outside, poured a glass of wine and hung out for awhile.
As we were eating, the hostess said, “I can’t believe that I am having company for dinner with my house looking like this.” Another guest and I said that we a) hadn’t noticed b)didn’t care what the house looked like and c) were sure that she had seen our houses in some similar state of disarray. Then the hostess said, “I’m just glad that I have friends that I can have in my house when it looks like this.”
As I get older, I find myself feeling the same way! The truth is, I don’t like for people to come to my house when it is dirty and things are strewn from the back door to the bathroom. Reality, though, has taught me that, if I wait for my house to be perfect before I have people in it, it won’t be full very often. My nature is to plan and get everything ready and know ahead of time what I am doing 3 weeks from next Thursday. My life doesn’t always follow my nature though and there are days when I have no idea from one minute to the next what I’ll be doing.
I am blessed to have friends that appreciate my house when it looks its best but don’t think less of me when it doesn’t! May it be said of me that anyone could stop by anytime. I’d rather have a less than perfect house than miss the fun of a spontaneous visit.
Copyright, RPL Communications, 2006
We call those “refrigerator friends”. The fridge is the one place most people don’t want you to look and it’s the place most people don’t feel comfortable just opening up. When you can walk into someones house and start getting what you need out of the fridge, you know it’s good.
I’m lucky. I have about five refrigerator friends and it’s made all the difference!
Comment by Chilihead2 — December 2, 2006 @ 10:24 pm