The Blue Christmas Ball

Hanging in our bedroom window is a large, frosty blue Christmas ball ornament.  Mike and I got it our very first Christmas together, 19 years ago.  I don't remember if we even had a tree that year, but I think I bought this ball at K-Mart.  It's bigger than a regular ball, and has this frosted coating.

For many Christmases we hung it on the tree and then put it away, and always said something like "oh, it's the blue ball....." very sentimentally.  At some point after we moved into our house I hung it up in the window, to catch the light, like a witch ball, and it stayed up all year.  It was such a happy sight every morning, with the birds in the giant lilac bush outside the window and the sun glinting through the glass.  It's been there ever since.  Probably the only thing in my whole house I've never rearranged (ok, maybe not the fridge either).

The original little gold filligree hanger is gone; it has a gerry-rigged paper clip w/ fishing line strung to it.  The frosty coating is half peeled off; I don't dust it anymore because the coating is too fragile, so it's super dirty.  It's very faded; only on the bottom can you see the original pretty blue.  The rest is washed-out and barely blue at all.

Tonight I stared and stared at it.  Why keep it?  Why not just toss it, it's not much to look at anymore.  It's kind of a miracle it hasn't gotten broken in many jostles over the years - cats, kids, the wind blowing in the window in the summer.  Why is it so hard for me to decide if it's worth saving at all?  Why is it so hard for me to let go?