Ok…so, it’s confession time. I’m a little embarrassed to say, but, I love Tiktok, the social media platform that has taken the world by storm over the last few years. I try to use my time wisely, and in all honesty, watching Tiktok videos might not be the best way to do that. But, every so often, I see a video that hits me hard. A good friend of mine recently sent me one that did just that.
It was a video of a young man who was talking about his Grandma…and her pots and pans of all things. Years and years ago, his Grandma wanted a set of copper pots and pans. She bought them because they were beautiful and she was excited to be able to use them to cook meals for her family for special occasions. Christmas dinners, Thanksgiving dinners, birthdays, anniversaries. She was going to cook food for those that she loved….and she was going to use those beautiful copper pots and pans.
But, they were expensive. They were shiny. They were too good to use. Over the years, those “special occasions” just didn’t feel special enough for her to use them. She didn’t want to discolor the copper. She didn’t want to damage or scratch them. Because, they were after all, copper….and they were beautiful. So, she used other pots and pans. And there they were, hanging like a chandelier in the kitchen collecting dust. For years, and then for decades, and then…she passed away without ever making a special occasion meal with her copper pots and pans.
Thankfully, her grandson took those pots and pans, dusted them off, cleaned them up and brought them to his home where he uses them – for special occasions, for not-so-special occasions, for a Tuesday night dinner all the while knowing his Grandma is right there by his side cooking those meals with him.
I think we all do this far too often. We make promises to ourselves, but for whatever reason, we wait. We let time pass. We tell ourselves that the right time will come. And also far too often, that time never comes.
So, use the good copper, visit that high school friend that you haven’t seen in years, buy the fancy shoes, eat the chocolate cake, take the trip, have the conversation. Because, if you don’t, one day you will have never done it and those promises that you made yourself will only be covered in dust, just like his grandma’s copper pots and pans.
Thankfully, we all have an opportunity to act on the promises we make to ourselves. We don’t have to wait. We don’t have to keep the copper pots and pans beautiful. All it takes is a decision, a decision to experience the beauty of life in the moment.
So, a challenge for all of us – today, tomorrow, this week, this month..use the good copper.