It's time to get moving...I don't mean packing up again...thank goodness! I mean finishing the "UN-packing"!!!! And, yet, some part of me would like to put it off as long as possible. Alayna, in her young woman wisdom recently said, "Mom, if you haven't 'looked at it' in a year, you probably really don't need it!"
Needing it may not be the right word to use for 'it'...but having 'it' around because I love 'it' is another story. I am reminded of my grandmas, more times than I can count as I unpack these things. The things I am talking about are things that have either come to me from those grandmas...like the cookie jar that sat on my great-grandma Melton's kitchen counter. By the time I met her, she kept store-bought cookies in there, ginger snaps, or oatmeal raisin...but they always tasted moist and delicious! Of course, that was in the 60's and 70's...and I can still hear her say "These are Archway!"--so we would know they were good! My dad--when he was a little boy--had gotten cookies out of that jar--as had her six children, and her fifteen grandchildren. And, just to keep the family peace, I should write taht I did not 'inherit' the cookie jar directly from her, no, it went to my dad first...as he was the oldest grandchild...but I got it a little later.
I have a blue pitcher that is 'really old' that sat in my mother-in-law's corner cabinet of her living room as long as I've been in the family...It had been either her mother's or her aunt's...but it is beautiful to me.
I also have an 'old bowl' that belonged to my one of my aunt's...and beautiful hand made things that my grandmas --AnnaBelle, Virginia and my great grandma Lucille made. There are precious quilts that friends made when I did women's ministry in Olney...there is valuable artwork that Alayna made when she was little, and precious things that Macy made when she was only 2-1/2...the twins made concrete blocks for the garden, which are in our landscaping right now...and an 'annivershereeee' present that Holly made when she was 5 or 6...
Do I 'need' these things to survive on this earth? Absolutely not. Are they valuable? No, only to me, and perhaps my children...or not...they are not particularly sentimental....But, the last time I visited AnnaBelle, (my amazing, blessing of a Grandma) before she moved to her assisted living apartment...back when she had her home...she could walk to anything in her home and say, "Well, your dad brought me that from.....OR, Dad and I picked that out when we were first married (at that time would have been 67 years or so before!)...OR, my friend made me this, OR she found this for me at a garage sale, because she knew I would love it"....none of these things were worth much monetarily...it just meant a lot to her that someone had thought of her, and brought it to her, forming a precious memory!
Maybe, just maybe, this is the reason I have been hesitating to unpack the last of the boxes...I want to take my time, and savor the memories...and place my treasures in conspicuous--or not so conspicuous places in this home...At the same time, being judicious about exactly what I keep, in order to save my children a lot of time when I'm gone...for they might not appreciate these things like I do--or at least have the memory attached to 'it'...
For example, my Great-grandma's cookie jar is just a cookie jar to them, as she died before they were born. But, to me, good good memories are attached to her home, I can still smell the spicy apple sauce cooking...or the gorgeous fragrances from her back porch, where we would look at 'how her plants were doing' every time we visited her! And, no--I did not get a green thumb from her, my cousin, Nadine Williams--Flower Ridge Farms--got all that talent and know-how, and for that I am truly thankful! Thankful that somebody got it in our generation--and apparently Nadine was paying more attention than me, when we looked at all those plants!
No, my treasures deserve my time...and so, I'm going to buy some really good coffee, and plan the days I'm going to spend UN-packing them ..maybe I'll keep a journal for this experience, for some day my girls will wonder 'what is this? OR why did mom keep this? OR, this is UGLY, why is it important?' But, those days will happen after I'm gone!
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