People are different. We come in different shapes and sizes. We come in different colors. We come with different personalities, different likes and dislikes, different ways of doing things. We’re different and that’s what makes life interesting.

My husband, Cliff, and I are different. There is, of course, the obvious that he’s a man and I’m a woman. But then, Cliff is of Chinese ancestry and I’m of Italian/Scottish/Irish/German ancestry. He has black hair. I’m a redhead. He has beautiful skin that tans. I have white skin that burns. He is calm 99.9% of the time. I’m of Italian/Scottish/Irish/German ancestry. Cliff has a wonderful short term memory, mine is horrible. I have a great long term memory, his is awful. I’ve told him our memory differences actually work in my favor because they say that as you age your short term memory is the first to go. Since I’ve never really had one, I’m thinking nobody will notice when I lose it. Right?

The saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place” is Cliff’s mantra. If something is borrowed, he likes it returned to its original spot. My mantra, “If it fits there, it can stay there.” In other words, I tend to put things wherever and then, because of the aforementioned lack of short term memory, I forget where I put them. But, I feel this has also worked in my favor. Since I have always been this way, my 61 years of losing things has made me really good at finding things. Cliff, not so much. Case in point…

Recently, Cliff was looking for his Heaven book by Randy Alcorn. It had been on an end table because he’d been reading it. While decorating for Christmas, I moved it to the bookshelf. Since Christmas decorating was done in the beginning of December, when he asked me, “Where is Heaven?” I forgot where I put it. I refer to the word “forgot” as the “f-word.” I do the “f-word” on pretty much a daily basis causing my dear husband to ask me on pretty much a daily basis if I have done the “f-word” yet again. But, I digress.

“Where is Heaven?” Now, if you were to ask a normal person in the room, where heaven is, it might seem like a philosophical question. A question that would demand introspection before answering. But, we are not exactly normal. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I told him I “thought” I put it on the bookshelf and if it wasn’t on the bookshelf I had once again been duped by the ever present “f-word.”

And so, he began his quest to find “Heaven.” He looked on the bookshelf under the “A’s” for Alcorn, but it wasn’t there. He looked upstairs, but it wasn’t there. He looked downstairs. Nothing. He even looked in the car. He couldn’t find it. I told him I would look and started at the bookshelf. And then I picked it up and gave it to him. The books with author’s last names beginning with “A” are on the top shelf in a vertical position, all in their place alphabetically. Since “I” put the book back, it was not in its vertical position under the A’s for Alcorn. I picked the book up off of the table and laid it on the second shelf, horizontally across the top of the other books. Not under “A’s”, not vertical, and not even close to where it was supposed to be. But. I found it. And. Cliff was happy. I lose things. I find things. And, when it comes down to it, we both know where heaven is so, it’s really not that big a deal!