Scrapped

The finishing touch on the lobby I just redecorated was to add a couple of custom made lumbar pillows to the two small black club chairs. The fabric I found was already marked down since there were only a few yards left on the roll. I waited patiently while the two clerks cutting fabric took their time finishing something they were working on together. The lead clerk spoke to me a couple of times throughout their process and thanked me for my patience and said she would be right with me. And that polite clerk made it well worth the wait. When she measured and cut the fabric I needed for the pillows she showed her appreciation for my patience by further slashing the price of the fabric! If I’d been thinking more clearly (instead of being giddy with joy at the added discount) I would have purchased all of the remaining fabric on the spot. Like Julie Andrews in the “Sound of Music” I could have made cute summer outfits for all of the seven von Trapp family children with that discounted and awesome upholstery fabric.

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But I didn’t buy it all as I should have. And, after finishing the new covers for the pillows, all that was left was a scrap – not even enough for the front side of one couch pillow – maybe enough for a pin cushion or two (ask your great grandmother what those are). All that was left was a scrap.

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What can be done when all that is left is a scrap . . . of your plans, of your dreams, of your hopes,

of your job, of your health, of your family, of your dignity? Do you look at the scrap and say “Its not enough. It will not work. It will not cover. Whether the fault lies in our own lack of proper planning or a shortage of materials or resources, lack is lack. But what CAN be done with a scrap? Let it lie, because its not enough to do what we had in mind, or maximize every available inch of that scrap with every ounce of energy we can muster?

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There are stellar real life examples of folks who grabbed their scrap and ran with it. They’ve fought disease, poverty, ignorance and all with a scrap clenched in their fist. They have one thing in common and that thing is hope. They are the folks that look at the scrap and see potential. They see more than what currently exists. They somehow see and dream in a future tense when you and I see nothing but a not-enough, won’t-cover-it scrap. Hope expands and enlarges the smalls of today. The high hopes of these folks for better health or finances or position come with a determination and willingness to fight for what they dream of and start with what is there.

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Multiplication doesn’t belong only to the few and the visionary who accomplish their impossible dreams. Sometimes it starts with only a small loaf and a couple of little fish—or even just a scrap.