A Quick Wipe

So, I have been away all week at a work event. My children have been home following school until their dad can pick them up. So, they've had the house to themselves.

I walk into the house and it was exactly what I expected...a mess. There were dishes, cups, bowls with milk still in them, souring....their were pans on the stove with dried, hard food in them....a total disaster. That was just the kitchen...the rest of the house was more of the same.

I started with the kitchen. I spent last night trying to clean it up. As I was scrubbing the pots and pans with dried on food I thought of how easy it is to clean up a pan with fettuccine alfredo when it is fresh, not hard and dried up. Once some time passes and the food dries on it, it takes a lot of work to get it clean.

Then I thought of a friend who is going through a hard time. She is dealing with issues with her family and her past. These are wounds that were created years ago....in essence, now they are hard and dried onto the surface....it would have been so much easier to clean them up when they were still fresh. Now, it seems almost impossible...similar to dried up fettuccine alfredo.

I wonder why we don't just clean up while we go through life. I know I have issues that I have let go by without dealing with them when there were fresh? Why do we wait until things get hard, dried on and still think that a quick wipe will do it? I know a quick wipe will not clean up some of my messes...and sometimes I wonder, is it just easier to throw the pan away?