Although I do write for my blog I do also use it as a storage space for amazing things that I have seen. This is one of those amazing things.. Enjoy!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Clearing out
"She was never a salt and pepper gal." This was a line that got me laughing yesterday. I was in the kitchen of my parents' house and passing the time, as I threw stuff out, with my longtime gal-pal, Michele. She is in New Orleans and we were having a cell phone visit - more than a conversation - where we hang out together....via the cell.
I know that this process has been the subject of way too many blog entries. That's the beauty of a personal blog and why I started here in the first place, way back in 2007. This is a place to empty out my heart when it gets too heavily laden with life's struggles.
Ready for a dump?
I am in the last phase of this year long odyssey. Finishing up in the kitchen, I opened a cabinet and found alot of my mother's spices. I have written before about her love of cooking, right? I threw away Alum, Pickling Spice, Mace, Garam Marsala, Mediterranean Basil Leaves, Fennegreek, Anise...to name a very, very few. Any of these have you scrambling for Google? Add to that various vinegars - blood orange comes to mind!
Anyway, I started singing a song to Michele - appropriately county western - about how my mother was never a "salt and pepper girl".... We then decided that women from my mother's era would be called a "Gal" so we started again.
I wish I had written down some of what I threw out. It's those little things that slip away that bother me. After all, Life is made up of such flotsam and jetsam, right? We all understand the big picture of Death but it's all the stuff in the margins that have us scrambling.
Which reminds me. I saw a show on hoarding, recently. The man was helping this woman with her truly out-of-control house. He gave her 5 minutes to grab what she found to be essential. What did she grab? Photos off the wall. In a house CRAMMED FULL of stuff she grabbed at the memories of those who had gone on before her. He looked at her and asked...."Is there anything else here that you deem essential? I will give you one more minute." Stopping for a moment, she shook her head. Wow.
I looked through dozens of old checks two days ago, all neatly boxed and ranging from 1983 - 1989. I was able to find some checks that my father had signed: a bit of a rarity in our household as Mum ran the Financial Train. Sweet to see, though. I was struck by all the charity giving my mother participated in. I always thought it was something she did in her later years but now I see it was an ongoing passion. Animal charities, children's charities, even money given to an organ fund! (My husband would be proud.) .
If there is any advice to be pulled from all this it's this. ... If you are even thinking of sitting down with an elderly relative..."gee, we should sit down with Great Aunt Agnes and record her talking about the family tree or life growing up in World War 2.." DO IT THIS WEEKEND.
Seriously. Stephen and I often talked about sitting down with my mother and a recorder and letting her reminisce about life in pre-war England, traveling here and setting up house in 1950's America, who these people were in this or that photograph, etc.. You know the story. This weekend turned into next weekend and then...poof. The opportunity was taken from us.
Please don't delay. Make that date for coffee or tea this week and spend the time.
Time itself will make you happy you did!
Friday, March 11, 2011
The last time
My daughter lost her last tooth last night. Here is her note to the Tooth Fairy.
Dear Tooth Fairy,
Could I keep my tooth? It is the last time and something special. So I say farewell.
Sincerely, Mallory
The Tooth Fairy left money and a message...
Be good.
x
Friday, March 4, 2011
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