I have a whistling tea kettle. It's a classic, a nice pretty Revere tea kettle, and it was a wedding gift about
It's been a faithful servant, quickly boiling water for my tea, cocoa, and instant oatmeal. It usually lives out on the top of the stove; when it gets grungy, I find great satisfaction in scouring that copper bottom & making the sides all shiny & new-looking again.
But my kettle isn't perfect. It has one major flaw, and if you've been in my house when I've used it, you're aware of this flaw.
My kettle is impatient.
I've seen kettles on tv and in movies that whistle cheerfully when the water boils, chirping in the background as if to say, "Hello! Your water is piping hot, so you can make your cocoa at your convenience!"
None of that with my kettle. My kettle has about 0.21 seconds worth of cheerful whistling before it changes to screaming. Our house is small, but if I run to the kitchen as soon as I hear the whistling start, it's still almost unbearably loud by the time I pull it off the burner. There is no danger of that kettle burning dry, I promise!
As annoying as it is, sometimes I wish more things in life were like my kettle. It might be handy if my checkbook squealed when I used up my grocery money too quickly. It would be nice if the last roll of toilet paper in the house let me know, maybe with a siren, that it is, in fact, the LAST roll of toilet paper in the house.
But most of all, I wish the non-physical needs of my family would be brought to my attention with that same screaming urgency. Hubby really needs to unburden himself after a long, difficult day? Girlie needs reassurance as she senses the changes coming to our house & family? Sister-in-law needs a shoulder to cry on as she copes with a tough work environment?
It's way too easy to get caught up in the minutiae of life. I think a siren, or bell, or alarm, or even a screaming tea kettle, would help me pay attention to what really matters.
5 comments:
This is all to true and would be a wonderful convience to our lives. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful thought.
So true. Especially the TP part. :)
What a great post, Jeni! Thanks for sharing. It is so true that all too often, we neglect the truly important things in life because we get distracted by the mundane. Thanks for the reminder.
Great post! Makes me think that maybe the Holy Spirit is that whistling tea kettle, but we are always as tuned in to His warnings? Guilty.
What an imaginative word picture...it made me smile and remember mind reading is a worthy mom super power. Sometimes I think I might have it, most of the time I KNOW I don't!
A reader's delight...I had to stumble it! :)
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