sometimes you just have to let it go

If you've ever visited Frank and I then you will know we are pretty house proud. We like our house, we like our stuff and it is possible we look after it to excess. When people visit we try and keep it all in check, but I guess making people remove their shoes at the door is a bit of a give away. That, and hovering over them with a cleaning cloth. And the obsessive neatness of everything.

OK, I'm exaggerating. A little. But at times I wonder if we love our stuff too much. And when people visit and point out the cleanness of everything I feel bad about our obsessiveness and the niceness of it all, but hey, we don't have children, we can keep things looking schmick and it works for us.

Recently our house pride was put to the test. A guest spilt tea on a beautiful, cream woollen rug. That rug is our pride and joy. (I exaggerate. A little) We like it a lot. It now has a dirty great tea stain which the carpet cleaner has warned us may be impossible to remove. A situation not helped by my well meaning, bicarb frenzied cleaning attack. (Although when you think about it, tea is tannin and tannins stain and dark stains show up best on light colours. Bicarb can hardly have made it worse)

It's been interesting to note Frank and my reaction to the situation. Not the cleaning attempts... but our emotional reaction. We've been really upset, out of sorts even. Almost grieving the loss of the rug. Crazy but true.

It's got me thinking about what has real value and worth. Yes, the rug definitely had value and worth - it was beautiful. But people matter more. And accidents happen - stuff gets wrecked. We loved having a house full of people the other day. Yeah, we're pretty sad about the stain, but friends are more important. Relationships are real and they have value it is difficult to quantify.

So. What price a rug? The price of choosing not to raise it when I saw the person again. Choosing not to be angry that they made no mention of the accident and didn't enquire as to the state of our rug... I let it go and forgave them in my heart.

I think Frank and I may have passed the test. (But no more tea spills please!)