Don’t give up on yourself just yet

I recently moved to a new condo. I had movers transport the big stuff, and friends helped me haul items that I didn’t want jostled – lamps, artwork, my laptop and such. Among these was my Hewlett Packard printer, a workhorse that has served me well for years in my work as a writer.

The box for said printer is long gone, so I set the printer into a laundry basket and placed it in the back of my vehicle for the trip. As we were unloading and carrying stuff up the outside stairs to my new place, we left the back of my SUV open. What I saw when I came back left me standing in the driveway with my mouth gaped open.

The white laundry basket was out on the asphalt. So was my printer. The basket was tipped on its side, and the printer was sitting right side up, although, clearly, it had rolled … at least once. Chunks of black plastic were scattered on the ground around my open tailgate. The lid of the printer was askew and the front panel completely off. The paper tray jutted ominously at an odd angle.

Aghast, I scrambled together the various pieces and carried the rest of the remains up to my office. At this point, I had two options. One, I could have gotten a new printer – they are amazingly affordable (until you have to replace the ink). But money is tight, and even with a likely tax deduction for my work, I chose instead to reassemble the thing as best I could.

It worked. Literally. I reattached the front panel and straightened the paper tray, and muscled a piece of the base back into place. I first tried a photocopy and then an actual printed document from my laptop. Success. My relief must have been palpable. Although it had taken a bad tumble, my printer was functioning.

Now, as I reflect on some of my own tumbles, I realize that I, too, can function again.

Each time I have taken a proverbial fall –; a less-than-ideal career choice, a less-than-wise relationship choice –; somehow the pieces fit back together. Of course, most of the time, I didn’t accomplish this on my own … in fact, it was often because of the other people who didn’t give up on me when I was ready to give up on myself.

In my experience, and there are 50-some years of it, very few of us are without some sort of patching up. And now, as the New Year beckons with all of its potential and its promises, what’s important for me to remember is that there are options when we do tumble, when we are broken open. Because even if we feel as though we can never be whole again, we can cobble together the parts and function again. And that, often, it is the love and support of the people who believe in us that help us heal.

In this season of new beginnings, it took a move, a laundry basket and a banged-up-but-beloved printer to remind me that we shouldn’t give up on ourselves just yet.