The Little Bronze Coat

There was a time when you were small, and you were told to put on a big puffy coat to keep the cold out and to stay warm from the elements. Your parents bought it for you, and sometimes you loved it, and other times you were embarrassed of it and didn’t want anyone else to see you in this coat your parents gave you.

You would only take this cold out when needed of protection, and use it accordingly.

But as you grew older, you noticed that you told yourself that you needed this coat more and more, that you started to take it out before the winter came, and you wanted to be more prepared than be without a coat in the cold. This was the same coat you would use when you were younger, and even though it didn’t fit as it should, you still went to grab it in your closet to wear for the days where it was cold. But now you would use it in the fall and the winter. Half of the year you would be wearing this coat.

The older you got, the more you started to reach for this coat to wear. Half of the year turned into every day. Now you have been wearing this heavy coat every day, without the regards of the weather. You were waking up angry and hot in the summer days, even colder in the winter since your body was so use to this coat, and that made you frustrated too.

So now you stand here, years later of wearing this coat daily, you look down and realize the true condition of this coat. That it’s not even winter, and you are wearing this dirty, ragged, ill-fitted coat, and you don’t even know why. You start to think and try to retrace your steps..when did this all start?, how did this happen?, who was in charge of this mishap? You were so alarmed with this mishap, and didn’t have any answers yet.

But then you started to see life differently, and you were ready for a change. So you go to shower and put the coat to wash as well. You turn to your current closet, all full of new, clean and bright clothes you have bought over the years in hope to wear one day when you were ready, and now you realized that you were. You put on the outfit in your favorite color, and noticed how well it fit you. It made you so happy to see yourself as the person you’ve always wanted to be.

After washing and drying your old coat, you store it in the closet. Sometimes you see it and it makes you angry again, sometimes you see it when you are sad and want to wear it again for comfort and warmth, but then you try it on and realize it does not suit you anymore. You even buy yourself a new winter’s coat that is more fitting your style now.

One day, as you were going through your closet for an important day in your life to celebrate your accomplishments, you were looking for the right outfit that would suit this special moment in your life. Then you noticed an empty hanger towards the back of the closet, and as you flip through your clothes to get to it, you notice something metal on the ground right under that empty hanger.

You pick it up, and notice that it was an old bronze figure shaped exactly as your old coat. Your old coat had shrunken and turned into a bronze figurine the size of your hand. You smile as you notice it.

See, this now bronze figurine that is shaped into your old coat is like your bronze metal. You are now allowed to store it on display, a symbol of hope and the willpower you had to change your life for the better.

So you shine your bronze coat figurine, walk it with pride from the back of your closet, and into the living room space. The space everyone you allow in your home can see it. You open up your glass cabinet and place it in it’s new spot for everyone to see.

And when people come over, especially the youth, and ask why do you have a bronze coat in your glass cabinet, you get to tell them about your story, and what the bronze coat symbolizes in your life.