This Little Bowl

This little bowl may not look like much to you . . and it isn't .  It's just a cheap (I think we got it at the 100 yen or dollar store when we first came to Japan), plastic bowl.  But she and I have been through a lot together.  She's going to be hard to leave behind when we go home.  She has been full of cookie dough so many times, I couldn't possible count.  I make cookies at least once a week, as I provide refreshments for our English classes and take treats to people as we visit them.  She's been full of puddings, casserole mixtures, cut up vegetables waiting to go into soup that we will take to an impoverished member of our branch at least once a week. She's been full of cleaning solutions of many types, chips, soup stock, bread dough, well, everything.  In making a meal the other night, I think I filled her, emptied her, washed her,  and refilled her with something else six times.   She and I are now on our third hand mixer (we've burned out two making all of those cookies.) She and I are like this.  You can see she's been too close to a hot pan, but I still use her.  She has been on this mission journey with me, and it will be very hard to part ways and say goodbye.  She has become kind of a symbol of this mission for me.  At home, I have a plethora of beautiful stainless steel bowls, one of every size.  I have a set of gorgeous, colorful ceramic bowls, a set of colorful melamine bowls with plastic lids, hand-made pottery bowls, and fancy serving bowls and silver bowls.  This little girl has done the job of all of the above- and done it with finesse!  It's made me realize how much less we really need than we think.  It would be crazy to take her home.  She would be the country bumpkin among my fine city beautiful bowls.  Would I ever even use her there?  And yet, as I said, it's hard to say goodbye to someone who has been through so much with me.  Hmmm . . . Maybe I could display her in my living room curio.  She would only be beautiful to me. She would sit amongst heirloom fine china, dolls and treasures from around the world.  Everyone else would wonder what she was doing in there.  But she and I would know.  So if you come to visit after we're home, don't surprised to see a well-used, scarred plastic bowl displayed proudly in my living room.  Please make her feel welcome in her new home and tell her well done, well done!