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Delving in the Salad Drawer!


The fridge salad drawer is an ingenious invention. It is unlike the door slots, where things are liable to leap out, if overloaded. It's sturdier than the shelves, which, when balanced too precariously, launch cheese-blocks or chutney jars at my unsuspecting toes.  On the contrary, the salad drawer is like the Tardis of the fridge, offering respite to rushed souls.  Running short of time? Open and throw in, at any angle or velocity!  Space an issue?  Just press a little harder - it will all go in somehow!

 Sometimes, though, this apparently time and space-saving approach becomes problematic.  After particularly hectic periods with work and family life there is no more ramming, throwing or squashing space and a horrible realisation dawns: the drawer must be dealt with!  Holding my breath, I begin to delve, attempting to identify the items that are far past their best.  Embarrassing though it is to admit, I have lunged across the kitchen to the bin with dripping cucumbers, untangled fresher items from the triffid-like tubers emerging from potatoes you could play a game of squash with!

 The job is not pleasant but the results are pleasing: a clean, tidy fridge with space to put things that are actually edible.  I can see what I have and plan my next meals and shopping trips more effectively.  Before you give up reading this column for good, wondering why you are being subjected to a rant about rancid vegetables, let me come to the link: we can live our lives like this too.

 We face big issues, like losing a parent, losing a baby, losing a partner and we push ourselves to be brave, keep going.  We hear a scary diagnosis, face tests, appointments and treatment and try to press on.  And the small irritations - stress at work, an unpleasant confrontation, financial concerns - can all press in and press down, taking up space, spreading the rot and decay in our hearts and minds.

 Facing and dealing with our 'rotting vegetables' isn't always easy but it is always worth the effort.  The Bible encourages us to bring them to God in prayer and promises that, as we do so, we will "...experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand," (Philippians 4v7).  I don't always want to face my life's 'cluttered salad drawers', but when I've asked God to help me clear them out (sometimes with support and prayer from friends), the promised peace always follows and I have room to breathe and space to fill my life with fresher and better things at last.

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