It was a sobering sight this week.
Years and years.
Of old paperwork and records.
Piled up in the hallways of my office.
All with a common destination.
A company would pick them up.
Secure them.
And shred them.
Wipe them off the face of the earth.
It was our first clean out in over fifteen years.
My co-workers and I pulled old records out of crawl spaces.
And storage areas.
LONG overdue.
It was dusty.
Hard work.
The realization for me was profound.
All I could see.
In the years and years of records.
Was the time.
The attention.
The thought.
The concern.
And let's be honest.
The stress and energy.
I invested in all of that work.
Now.....closed shut.
Taped up.
And headed out the door.
Soon to be gone.
Like the wind.
Wiped away.
I spent the better part of this week.
Reckoning with this.
Yes. It's possible I'm being dramatic.
But it hit me hard.
What really does remain?
At work.
At the office.
When all evidence of what I do is gone?
And this is where I settled.
The work and the records will be wiped away one day.
All evidence of what was done.
Or accomplished.
The assignments.
The paperwork.
The projects.
Won't remain.
But.
But.
But.
The people.
The people remain.
Relationships remain.
At our office.
We share life as well as our work.
There's meals shared together.
And laughter.
Hardships.
And problem solving.
There's inside jokes.
And accepting each others weaknesses.
There are happy times.
And devastating times.
There's times when we just get on each other's nerves.
And disagree.
There's hospital visits.
And holidays,
Advice given and received.
And talks about faith.
Children are born.
Weddings are held.
Divorce happens.
Families are blended.
We share the problems we have with our children.
And the tough news we got from the doctor.
We talk about eating better and essential oils.
Working out and what we're doing this weekend.
Years go by in a hurry.
There's retirements.
And relocations.
And change.
But the investment I make in people remains.
The relationships remain.
So.
The old records are heading out the door.
And I've settled with that.
But I realized in the process.
Some things do remain.
I'll be smart to invest there.
And keep a light hold on everything else.
