odds & ends: to define

for those who actually reads my crap and somehow wondered about the title heading of my note and/or blog entries “what does ‘odds & ends’ means?” 

i was asked a few times already and again recently what does it mean and i was only able to give a brief verbal definition of it before recent and ever since then, i have wanted to give a written definition of it or at least planned to, but just never really got around to it.  well i figured now is the best time to do so, since i’m still stuck on ‘damn all these words’ not coming out.  sometimes when thoughts and ideas gets jammed, the best way to ease’em out is but directing some of the thoughts and let it flow gradually and easily, instead of trying to force them out, it will negate the words from developing into something that will remotely make sense to anyone or to you at the least.  take a ketchup bottle, sometimes the ketchup get all clumpy and don’t want to come out, patience gets tested and we start shaking it out on to your plate or pounding it on the bottom end and it just splatters all over your plate or even worst all over yourself. common sense dictates to take a butter knife and poke in to the bottle to let air in so the ketchup would simple pour out. so, that’s the idea at the moment, to define what ‘odds & ends’ means to me with a little spill story.

the dictionary defines ‘odds and ends’ to use as a noun and it means miscellaneous articles, remains or remnants  of different kind of things that are usually small and unimportant.  the synonyms are: bits and pieces, bits, pieces, stuff, paraphernalia, things, sundries, miscellaneous, bric-a-brac, knick knacks, oddments, junk.

exactly the definition i’m going for, yet not exactly the sentiment i’m going for.  for me ‘odds and ends’ means more than the definition or the term or lack thereof.  it is my form of expression that is peculiar to itself grammatically, my very own characteristic mode of expression in my own writing(s), my own jargon, talk, vocabulary or for a better word and simply put, my own idiom.

my maternal grandfather, god rest his soul, once told me that “ryan, one day when you get to be as old as i am, you’ll look back and you will learn that often enough, that the things that matters the most, are the littlest things or smallest act can and will define you.”  ever since then, i started seeing things a different way, i try to find every bit amount of value or sentiments in things i have, find, given or have done or yet to do.

so the other lesson i learned from my grandpa was, to enjoy and cherish every little thing that you have, be fortunate and be blessed for what you have and learn to share even the little that you have.  the little things, the odds & ends, the bits & pieces like the definition says.

one time in my teen years, during one of the many odd, weird, random or long winded conversation i had with my brother-in-law david, god rest his soul.  he asked me what is it that i wanted to do when i get older, if had any sort of plans.  without going through the whole details, during that time, i was just in my teens, i pretty much summed up my answer to, “not sure” i told him there’s so much i want to do and try, i want to try out things.  he was the first one that actually pointed out and told me that he noticed about myself, that i’m bit out there, like someone that will be in a constant search for something that only i would only know once i eventually find it, but right then and there i would have no clue.  a part of me, still believe he’s right, i still have no clue. lol. david also the first to point out to me that i’m of many things, that i like to do and get my hands on every little thing that peeks my interest or curiosity and that’s when i apply myself when it suits me.  and he was and is still right, he did forwarned me that do not over extend myself and to keep focus or you’ll crash and burn.  oh boy he was and still is right. he was always looking out for me, i remember the many little random things we talked about especially about myself.  BUT when he left us, i kind of forgot about that part of myself that he always used to remind me, the little things.

the lesson, don’t forget the little things that reminds us who we are and who can become.

so what’s “odds and ends”? to me it’s the little things that at first sight you would think that are of no value when in fact they are the bits & pieces that when put together they sum up to who i am. the 'odds & ends' stories i tell, the words i write may seem irrelevant, insignificant and/or junk to everyone, but to me, there's always a hidden back to story to them, however little they were, they had significant impact to how i am defined and shaped today. 

these are one of my many “odds and ends”.   whether if you or anyone  gets to read this, these are some of the

little things that i value mosts and as my granpa told me, try to share even what little i have.

'odds and eds', what are yours?    

post script – if you’re reading this, i hope it make sense. this was written free write, so it is raw and maybe subject to punctuation/grammar correction and edit.

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