What's That Smell?

It was late.

The party was winding down.

The remains of our scary appetizers on their fun Halloween platters were scattered across the kitchen counter and the flat top stove.

We were saying goodbyes to some who were leaving and laughing about the events of the night.

And then...

"What's that smell?" someone asked.

A hint of burning plastic...

A mad scramble to find the source revealed that somehow, one of the burners had gotten turned on.

And it happened to have a plastic bowl of snacks sitting right on top of it!

Luckily, we grabbed it and turned the stove off before the house burnt down.

But the bowl was ruined.

And the stovetop needed a good cleaning.

Interestingly enough, this isn't the first time something got melted on that stovetop.

A few years back, there was an incident with a freezer drawer from my new refrigerator. You can read that story here if you want: Oops!

In a weird way, that bowl made me think about how fragile life is.

How at any moment, we can find ourselves, or something we love, at risk of melting.

The heat gets turned on without us realizing it, and the temperature slowly rises until it gets to be just a little too much.

It burns holes in our hearts and changes our composition entirely.

We go from being whole one minute, laughing and having fun, to practically unrecognizable.

How do we prevent this from happening?

For my stovetop situation, I think I need to get one of those stove covers.

Or maybe a new stove with more modern switches that have protective locks on them?

Preventing the risk of getting burned in life isn't quite so simple.

We can't stay away from the heat entirely - that comes with being human.

But I do think we can watch for signs and keep ourselves from burning up completely.

Every once in awhile, pause to take our temperature.

Assess the situations we are in, who we are with, and whether we are comfortable with how warm it is.

If it's too much, it's okay to walk away.

No matter how hard we try, though, sometimes we're going to end up a little melted.

The key is not let it burn a hole all the way through.

And to be surrounded by people who recognize the source of the smell and quickly pull us away from the burner!

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