The Mess I'd Made

the moment life became the kitchen.

Sep 24, 2025

With a dish sponge in my hand and a sink free of dishes, my eyes roamed the kitchen for signs of the full meal I’d prepared for my family. There weren’t any.

Besides the lingering scent of The M’s all-purpose seasoning and the beeping of the oven’s timer… There weren’t any.

I cleaned as I went. I thought as my lips curled upward and my head lifted before falling.

It was at that very second that I was struck with a revelation. Life morphed into the kitchen, and dinner became the pieces of me I’d been working hard to reach/create over the years.

The plate I was ready to serve with each dish piled in small portions became my presence. The dishes I’d cleaned and the ingredients I’d stored away became the mess I’d made while striving to get to the place I am today.

Instinctively, I developed the urge to protect my plate and everything on it, making sure no one had the power to touch or destroy what I’d spent hours making… breaking the glass into tiny pieces I would spend years mending.

And those dishes— the mess I’d made and cleaned along the way— became the greatest analogy life has ever given me.

They reminded me that the journey will get messy, but if you clean along the journey, the results won’t require you to revisit those parts of you too often.

But, if you allow the mess to pile up and it’s still there when you think you’ve become the person you’ve been striving for, you will quickly be reminded of the person you are trying to leave behind… leaving you with baggage you don’t deserve.

And you’ll be:

easily triggered.

easily overwhelmed.

easily swayed.

easily upset.

easily broken.

easily hurt.

and not so easily healed.

Protect your plate. Don’t let anyone break parts of you you’ve spent precious time building. But, don’t break it yourself either.

Clean as you go.

Scrub those dishes.

Put away those ingredients.