Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

I think this phrase originated from a nursing mother who spent hours making and then pumping milk for her baby, only to have the bottle knocked over. The mother, upon seeing the pool of milk on the floor, promptly burst into tears. Then someone, in an attempt to lighten the situation naïvely said, "don't cry over spilled milk!" At which time the mother cried harder, and then ran the person out of town.

I've become extremely protective of my pumped milk (aka "liquid gold") to the point where I don't even want to know if Dash spit up because that means the milk was wasted. Yesterday, a bottle of pumped milk was spilled on our table and I insisted on saving it. Matt was kind enough to use this scraper to get the milk into a shallow bowl, and we used a funnel to pour it back into the bottle. (I would not have done this had the kitchen table not been recently cleaned and sanitized.)

This morning, someone broke into Matt's car because I had accidentally left the driver's door unlocked. Even though they didn't take much ($20 cash, a hat, and some gloves), it was a wake up call to me that I was being too obsessive. I mean, a bottle of spilled milk is nothing compared to our car being potentially stolen.

In both situations, things weren't as bad as they could have been, which is maybe why I was able to handle things better emotionally. I hope I can remember this lesson, though, the next time a bottle spills.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah