Confetti
I love confetti.
My husband, not so much. Why? Because it’s messy.
But that is exactly why I love it so much. See, we use confetti to celebrate: a win, a birthday, a graduation, an anniversary, a promotion, a big milestone, a championship. In that moment, spirits are high and people are in good moods and celebrating feels really good. But once the party is over and the guests have gone home, confetti can look like a mess.
In our house, I like to keep the confetti around for a few days. Over the course of those days, those sparkly bits of paper and die cut glitters will make their way all around the house. Into bathrooms, under the sofa, behind a dresser, in a closet; sometimes those little bits of the celebration make their way into our beds and tuck themselves down into the sheets right along with us.
When it’s time to clean them up, there’s a process.
First, you sweep them all into a pile.
Then, you vacuum up that pile.
Repeat as needed.
When the kids were little, I’d have them come over and help vacuum so they could see all those paper bits have their own “party” in the clear, see-thru cylinder of the vacuum. “Look mom! Their all having a party!” my daughter would say as she’d watch the multi-colored mini tornado swirl and spin about in a frenzy.
We turned vacuuming into a party and at the mess into a second celebration.
Weeks after the party or celebration is over and we’ve cleaned up what we thought was every last bit of confetti, it’s not uncommon to find a stray piece hiding under a rug or in between the cushions of the sofa. A mess? Maybe, but also a reminder of the celebration, the moment, the person, their smiles, our togetherness, a community of people gathered around to show love and support for one another.
That’s the thing about messes. Whether they are good or bad, if we look at them as something to quickly clean up and get back to perfect, we miss the moment. Sure, some messes require prompt action, whether that’s a personnel issue on a team or an issue on the kitchen floor; but with each mess (whether that’s an internal mess or an external one), we stand to learn a lot:
No one gets through life without a mess - thanks goodness for that.
More people, more messes - teams or toddlers, people are messy.
Messes aren’t always in plain sight, they often hide behind a sofa - or a spreadsheet.
We get better at handling and cleaning them as time goes on, it takes practice and a good system.
We stop being surprised when they happen (see #1).
Recently, we celebrated my daughter’s birthday. Of course, there was confetti. As I went to pull the vacuum out of the closet to begin the cleaning process, my husband stopped me:
“Let’s not clean it up just yet, I’m starting to like having it around for a few extra days.”
Even the most mess averse of us can grow when we see them as opportunities to reflect and grow from.
