Last winter during our usual snowbirdin' season in Florida, I visited the Tuesday Morning Market in one of my favorite and quaint little towns - Gulfport. From a Greek vendor who creates gorgeous jewelry from the avocado pits of her late father's tree, I treated myself to an interesting silver bracelet with a unique design (created by an avocado pit) in the center, with two pieces of sea-glass colored stones on either side.
Months later, one of the stones fell off and was lost. Having paid a decent amount for the bracelet, I emailed the vendor who offered to mail me a replacement stone; she described how best to glue it on. I heeded her instructions, but the stone didn't hold. I again emailed and she said to visit her at the market when in Gulfport and she would repair it. I did that, left the bracelet with her, and returned the following week to pick it up.
This little avocado project took three treks to Gulfport 30 minutes away (which I didn't mind - it's a terrific outdoor market). After her repair job wouldn't hold either, she offered for me to select a different bracelet. I was awarded an equally cool design and better constructed.
Different town ... different bracelet ... same state. Another pretty silver bracelet I had purchased last winter in the 10 minutes away area of John's Pass Village turned a funky brown on its once vibrant-colored aqua sea glass center. Since I was in Bracelet Returning Mode, I emailed the store who said to please come in and they would look at it. Trouble was - the store had moved 45 minutes away - to the quaint downtown of Dunedin. Again, I didn't mind trekking there because I love Dunedin, too. (Lupini tagged along - it's a very pup friendly town.)
The store's owner offered me a shiny new replacement bracelet, exactly like the one I had bought. I went on my merry gypsy-jewelry-jingling way to enjoy my Dunedin Day with Hubs, our son Matt, and our friend Dave.
About a week after the bracelet issues were solved, I reflected on how much time and energy I had invested. The emailing, the fretting, the driving, the exchanges. (Sometimes I operate on "the principal of the thing" when I spend good moolah on things which break.)
Snippeteers, how are we expending our energy and how much time are we using up on the lesser important things of the world?
Let's be conscious of that.
The next time an issue comes along, I may ask myself (and you might, too, with whatever comes to mind) ... is it worth wasting our time to fight a little issue? Worth our focus? Our energy? Our irritation, impatience, reward? Even the gas and time it might take to drive out of our way, to prove a point, to make it right? Is the end result worth it?
Do we become so fixated on an issue that we cannot let it go? Leave it be? Maybe even toss it out and call it a day?
You know the bracelet is only an analogy here. This concept of is it worth the time and energy we're investing could apply to something way bigger and more important than a piece of bling.
How far should we push for something before it's just wasting our personal resources?
