The Watering Hole Blog

The Salvage Yard

junk yard

The Salvage Yard – Take What You Need & Toss the Rest

Image by Gary Scott on Pixabay

Salvage yard: “A place where old cars and machines are taken apart so that the metal and other parts they contain can be used again.”

– Cambridge English Dictionary

Funny the things you can glean from other people’s stories.

I heard a story the other day about a guy who worked at a salvage yard to pay the bills – but had to take a few days off because his arms got sore.

He realized this little nudge from the Universe may have been a push of sorts to help get him going in a very different direction…the opening of a food truck.

Apparently this guy is an amazing chef and starting a food truck business had been his dream for a long time. There had been many false starts over the years but then things finally started clicking into place.

When I heard some of the culinary details of the scrumptious dishes that would someday be on the menu, I began to pretty pumped myself about this guy’s food truck dream coming to fruition!

But then the writer in me got thinking (like the writer in me ever stops thinking?!):

My dream job of writing (which, thankfully, I get to do every single day) IS rather like working in a salvage yard…only instead of taking apart old cars and other machinery, I get to disassemble life’s experiences – my own and others – and salvage what I can by finding (and/or making) meaning…and learning a few lessons.

Then, I get to re-use that salvaged material by creating new entities…written works in the form of blogs (such as this one), books, playscripts and screenplays. And, more often than not, I even get to use a salvaged bit in MORE than one project! Now, that’s some serious re-purposing 🙂

I am a worker in the salvage yard of life. Click To Tweet
Image by Monika Baechler on Pixabay

And on that note, here is another thing I am taking from the salvage yard story:

As fortunate as I am to be able to work at my dream job…I, too, have to be careful to take a few days off here and there, so my sore arms can recover. If I don’t take proper care of my body, my writing days will be numbered due to tendinitis and/or carpel tunnel syndrome.

How about you?

Whether you are a writer or not, might there be a recent (or not so recent) life experience you could salvage a lesson or two from?

Or perhaps you, too, might be due for a rest break?

Or maybe you could use a reminder that even though you might not be doing your dream job right now...don’t stop taking the preparatory steps necessary so that the universe CAN deliver your dream job when the time is right. Click To Tweet

Take care, happy salvaging & thanks for reading!

Maryanne Pope is the author of A Widow’s Awakening, the playwright of Saviour and the screenwriter of God’s Country. Maryanne is CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and a Director with the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. To receive her weekly blog, Weekly Words of Wisdom, subscribe here.

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4 thoughts on “The Salvage Yard”

  1. Maryanne My native Hawaiian grandson, Michael Pascua, now living in California, is a winner of an all states Chef contest in Las Vegas He now has set up a food truck business, featuring his own Thai recipes, in Beverley 🙋 Hills, ca. He worked at the restaurant in Honolulu where Obama always chose to dine.
    Michael is also a fabulous tattoo 👩‍🎨 artist. He reminds me of Obama. Calm personality. Tall and part Philippino. I wish Michael and all food truck 🛻 workers good food 🍱 and lots of paying customers.

  2. Okay…I will for sure check out Michael’s food truck whenever I am able to get back to Beverley Hills/LA! Can’t WAIT!! That is so cool about him winning an all states Chef contest in Vegas. I remember you telling me about that. Whenever I DO make it to his food truck, I will for sure blog about it 🙂

    Take care,
    MA

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