What Are You Saving It For?
I’ve been thinking about something lately.
You know, one of those thoughts that keeps creeping in when you’re driving somewhere, folding laundry, or brushing your teeth.
A while back, I was helping a woman go through her closet.
She pulled out a dress she hadn’t worn in years.
It still fit. She still liked it.
So I asked why she wasn’t wearing it.
She looked at the dress for a second and said, “I’m saving it.”
Now, I don’t remember what she was saving it for.
A trip. A special occasion. Dinner out. Something along those lines.
What stuck with me wasn’t the dress.
It was the phrase.
I’m saving it.
The Phrase That Stuck With Me
The funny thing is, once she said it, I started noticing how often I hear those words.
Sometimes it shows up in a closet.
Other times it’s the good dishes or a bottle of perfume you’ve been saving for years.
That perfume thing hits close to home, by the way.
Years ago, I had a bottle I absolutely loved. Not the everyday kind. The special kind.
So I saved it.
You can probably guess what happened.
By the time I decided there was no point in waiting for a special occasion, the perfume had turned.
I spent so much time saving it that I never really got to enjoy it.
Anyway… back to the dress.
The Things We Save for Later
The more I thought about what that woman said, the more curious I became.
Not about the dress itself.
About the waiting.
Because out of everything in the closet, why is that the thing that’s still hanging there?
Because if we’re honest, most of us have something like that.
It isn’t that we’ve forgotten about it. If anything, we notice it every time we open the closet.
We move it from one side of the rod to the other, pull it out and look at it, then tell ourselves we’ll deal with it later.
What Keeps It Hanging There?
That’s the part I find interesting.
So what is it about that particular piece that keeps it hanging there year after year?
I don’t think it’s always about the item itself.
Sometimes it’s the trip we thought we’d take, a memory, a hope.
Sometimes we aren’t entirely sure.
Then life takes a turn we didn’t really see coming.
Plans change.
The trip doesn’t happen.
The occasion comes and goes.
Or maybe life simply moves on while the dress stays right where it is.
That’s the part that keeps creeping into my head.
Maybe It’s Not About the Dress
Because I don’t think this is really about the dress.
I think it’s about what the dress represents.
Maybe the more interesting question is why you’ve kept it this long.
Anyway, that’s the thought that’s been following me around lately.
