OLD KEYS WON’T OPEN NEW DOORS by Pennie Hunt

When my mother-in-law passed away, she left an entire drawer full of keys. Keys of every shape, size, and color. Shiny keys and old, worn keys. Gold, silver, and colorful keys. It was a fascinating sight to see so many keys saved in one large drawer.

It was easy to believe they were keys to businesses she had owned. Keys to homes she had lived in and cars she had driven.​ Safe deposit box keys and tiny jewelry box keys.

What fascinated me the most was why she kept them. I suspect there was a reason. Maybe it was because every key held a story. A story that no one knew. And since the holder of the keys is no longer with us, none of us will ever know the hundreds of stories that went with the keys.

Some keys were attached to key rings with plastic or paper labels. Some were in leather cases, and some were attached to padlocks. I wondered if this was significant and correlated to the importance of the story they held. Maybe the keys in cases h​eld special sentimental stories that deserved a special resting place and safekeeping.

Maybe the padlocked keys held stories that were never to be opened or visited again. And maybe all the loose keys held paragraphs or chapters that, when tied together, told a much bigger story.

No one knows when the first key went in the drawer or how many of her 90 years it took to gather them. The drawer of keys will always be a collection of mysteries.
I have a few keys in my junk drawer. They are mostly keys that I no longer remember what they are for. What if someday I found the lock and had thrown away the key? I am afraid of needing them someday, so I keep them. I suppose we all do this.

Think about all the keys you have held in your lifetime and the doors they opened. Maybe as a child, you had a diary with a tiny lock and key that, when opened, held the secrets of your youth. The key to your first car opened an entire world of freedom you had never experienced before. The key to your first apartment opened an independence and was the gateway to adulthood. The key to your first office opened the first step to financial security. The key to the first home you purchased might have opened the door to having a life partner and a growing family.  Keys open the doors to our dreams.

Along the way, our keys become bigger. Not in size, but they open bigger doors. Bigger opportunities. Bigger experiences. And bigger lives for us. We want bigger keys so we can continue to move to a bigger life and bigger dreams.

As we walk through life and continue to collect new keys, we no longer need the old ones. We have grown through the old stories that the keys held. Old keys won’t open new doors, so we throw them away. Or maybe, we throw them all in a drawer where the keys collect and create a mystery box of hundreds of secret stories t​o past dreams that will never be known.
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                                                Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                                           Old keys won’t open new doors.
                       They are the keepers of life stories and past dreams.
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YOUR TURN...        
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