Mirror balls vs bookmarks

The truck made a grating sound and stopped right in front of our house. I looked out the window and noticed an unpleasant emptiness.

A week ago, there was a ball hanging outside the window.  It was not a regular balloon. It was a Styrofoam ball covered with shards of plastic mirror.

My thoughts went back 6 and a half years.

Daniel and I bought 3 of these balls to decorate our wedding hall. The first one was given to a nephew after registration. It’s in Somerset now.

I hung the other two in front of the living room windows outside the house, as Christmas decorations.

You know, I didn’t think Daniel could stand it for long.

On cloudless days, the sun was reflected in bits of plastic mirror. This turned the house into a daytime nightclub. And in windy weather, the sun’s rays danced madly.

I planned to take them off after Christmas. But at first it was cold outside, then I didn’t want to bother with the ladder. Eventually,  we got used to them.

Now we are getting ready to repair the house. So I had to take them off and put them in a box. 

The truck was still there.

And I still kept looking at the empty window. I thought of people, how they come and go in our lives. Some of them, like wedding mirror balls, leave behind pleasant memories.  We call them friends. We think about them and want to meet them again.

But there are others. They’re  less pleasant, but no less necessary. They exist so that we can appreciate all nice people. They are neither friends nor enemies. They are catalysts that refresh the memory, like bookmarks in books or the web. Often the “bookmarks”  helps us remember those with whom we have not communicated for a long time.

At this point, it is a good time for a toast: Let’s drink to all our friends and nice people, and my husband Daniel. Because he promised to hang mirror balls back in front of the windows by Christmas.

As for me, I’m going to text some friends….