Clump #185:  Sort son’s Billboard magazine collection.  Day ten of the 30-day, 30-post Bedroom Blast Challenge.

Today’s clump seemed like a mindless waste of time.  Our son had a subscription to Billboard magazine for about two years: 2011 on the right, 2012 on the left.  They are now in chronological order.   I remember asking him quite a long time ago whether he wanted to keep them, and he had said there were some articles he still wanted to read.

Oh my, the apple does not fall far from the tree.  I know that impulse so very well.  I’ve had to assure myself that various articles I’m still interested in, but haven’t gotten to, can be found online or in the library.  He’s not missing the articles in Billboard from 2013 and 2014, because they’re sight unseen … on and on, but logic doesn’t hold much weight.  The stacks of magazines do, however.  I will await his decision.

The clearing of our son’s room, clump by clump, day by day, has made me think of him even more than usual.  I had taken the photo, above, of a blue flower recently.  It made me happy, not only because I love the color blue, but also because it reminded me of the blue flower in one of the Henry and Mudge books by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Sucie Stevenson.  I checked our “library,” and sure enough, it was in Henry and Mudge in Puddle Trouble.  Not only that, our son’s name was written on the cover by his first grade teacher.  Ah, the simple days of Henry and Mudge … I had forgotten how much I loved them!  The flower figured in the first chapter, “The Snow Glory.”

The beginning is balm to the souls of all of us coming out of the deep freeze: “When the snow melted and Spring came, Henry and his big dog Mudge stayed outside all the time.  Henry had missed riding his bike.  Mudge had missed chewing on sticks.  They were glad it was warmer.”

And then they discovered a blue flower.  “‘Can I pick it?'” Henry asked.  ‘Oh, no,’ said his mother.  ‘Let it grow.'”…  Henry couldn’t stop wanting to pick it and imagined putting it in a jar. … “He thought how nice it would be to own that snow glory.”

Henry finally can’t take it any more and says to Mudge, “‘Now I need it.’  And Mudge wagged his tail, licked Henry’s face, then put his big mouth right over that snow glory … and he ate it.”

“I said need it, not eat it!”   In the end, Henry can’t stay angry with Mudge. “He knew it wasn’t his snow glory.  He knew it wasn’t anybody’s snow glory.  Just a thing to let grow.  And it was just a thing to let go.  Henry stopped feeling mad.”

The chapter ends, “‘Next time, Mudge,’ … ‘try to listen better.’  Mudge wagged his tail and licked his lips.  One blue petal fell from his mouth into Henry’s hand.  Henry smiled, put it in his pocket, and they went inside.”

A fitting tale to help me in this mission to figure out what to keep, what to let go, and what to let grow.  What things do we really need to own?