Invaluable
Today I found myself musing over shelves filled with cracked and worn out trinkets at a local antique show. Many items on display were more familiar to me that I'd like to admit.
As I picked up a rusty Folgers coffee can filled with tiddlywinks, a woman behind me exclaimed, "look at this!" Thinking she was talking to me, I turn around and realized she was speaking to an elderly woman who was slowly making her way over. "Doesn't she look just like Aunt Elsie?" The frail woman's voice quivered as she answered. "What an uncanny resemblance! Remember those ginger cookies she used to make and how she let us help her in the kitchen?"
I listened as they journeyed back in time. "Oh yes, and she would read the story of the gingerbread boy while they baked in the oven. I can still smell them", she reminisced, slowly running her finger over the frame.
Walking away, I thought about how much more valuable the memory was that they shared than the photograph they held. I thought about my own mother, and how she could turn items that others would throw in the trash into beautiful works of art. My dad's empty beer cans, for example. She would find them laying around and cut the tops off, then cut the sides and curl them with pliers, using the bottom of the can as the center, creating aluminum flowers which she arranged onto burlap stretched over canvas. I remember exactly where it hung in our living room, even to the detail of the wallpaper pattern behind it.
As much as I would love to have even one of her pieces of art, what is far more important to me is the admiration I have for her; the role model she was and the impact she made on my life.
Those two women today shared something special. Something no one can ever take away from them. How incredibly invaluable are those times from the past which helped shape our character - and the times today which shape our children's future!
As I picked up a rusty Folgers coffee can filled with tiddlywinks, a woman behind me exclaimed, "look at this!" Thinking she was talking to me, I turn around and realized she was speaking to an elderly woman who was slowly making her way over. "Doesn't she look just like Aunt Elsie?" The frail woman's voice quivered as she answered. "What an uncanny resemblance! Remember those ginger cookies she used to make and how she let us help her in the kitchen?"
I listened as they journeyed back in time. "Oh yes, and she would read the story of the gingerbread boy while they baked in the oven. I can still smell them", she reminisced, slowly running her finger over the frame.
Walking away, I thought about how much more valuable the memory was that they shared than the photograph they held. I thought about my own mother, and how she could turn items that others would throw in the trash into beautiful works of art. My dad's empty beer cans, for example. She would find them laying around and cut the tops off, then cut the sides and curl them with pliers, using the bottom of the can as the center, creating aluminum flowers which she arranged onto burlap stretched over canvas. I remember exactly where it hung in our living room, even to the detail of the wallpaper pattern behind it.
As much as I would love to have even one of her pieces of art, what is far more important to me is the admiration I have for her; the role model she was and the impact she made on my life.
Those two women today shared something special. Something no one can ever take away from them. How incredibly invaluable are those times from the past which helped shape our character - and the times today which shape our children's future!
In the times you've spoken of your mom, it has given me an opportunity to grow to know her through your eyes, your memories.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have always loved is the look in your eyes, the look on your face, as you speak of her. I can see you actually go to another place until you seem to be in her presence. It is not difficult to see that she was indeed your hero.
It is not difficult to see, as well, that she was an amazing mommy. The result being that you are now an amazing mommy as well. You do her proud in the way you carry on her legacy. She would be so very proud of you, Robin. And rightly so.
-- John