Left Behind
There are things in my house that were left behind along the way. As an only child growing up my family ended up with a lot of those things.
It has been a joke in my immediate family that everything we have-has a name. Names like- my mother's rocker, or my grandmother's rocker, or the chest-of-drawers that my parents bought and used the bottom drawer as my first crib. (No no they didn't close the drawer)
My cousins on occasion will tease me about the things that I have...and that's ok. Attached to these things that are left behind is the essence of the person who owned them. I can see my Grandmother in the rocker I'm sitting in holding my younger cousin and rocking him as I know she rocked me. I can see my Grandfather Ed making the blown-glass canes we have on the wall. I can hold my father's well-used Peterson Guide to the Birds and realize there are lot of Ohio State grads who learned about the birds from him as I had. These are left behind. But in a sense, because I remember, and constantly remind my children, they are also moving on. Whether any of these will be interesting to them later on--I don't know. And that's ok.
These things are what motivate me some days. These things remind me of how my parents would have celebrated our children's success and John and I together. They are for me treasures... see that rug that is on the wall was hand made by my Grandmother Grace...and the painting over there was done by a good friend from Bryan, Jimmie Homberg...and that clock belonged to....
enough...
fine... but let me tell you about these people...see, they are not left behind at all.
Are you lucky enough to hold some of the things from your past? What stories or experiences can you pass on? What can you do to make your whole life something to be treasured when you leave it behind? Give it a try? I hope so.
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2007
It has been a joke in my immediate family that everything we have-has a name. Names like- my mother's rocker, or my grandmother's rocker, or the chest-of-drawers that my parents bought and used the bottom drawer as my first crib. (No no they didn't close the drawer)
My cousins on occasion will tease me about the things that I have...and that's ok. Attached to these things that are left behind is the essence of the person who owned them. I can see my Grandmother in the rocker I'm sitting in holding my younger cousin and rocking him as I know she rocked me. I can see my Grandfather Ed making the blown-glass canes we have on the wall. I can hold my father's well-used Peterson Guide to the Birds and realize there are lot of Ohio State grads who learned about the birds from him as I had. These are left behind. But in a sense, because I remember, and constantly remind my children, they are also moving on. Whether any of these will be interesting to them later on--I don't know. And that's ok.
These things are what motivate me some days. These things remind me of how my parents would have celebrated our children's success and John and I together. They are for me treasures... see that rug that is on the wall was hand made by my Grandmother Grace...and the painting over there was done by a good friend from Bryan, Jimmie Homberg...and that clock belonged to....
enough...
fine... but let me tell you about these people...see, they are not left behind at all.
Are you lucky enough to hold some of the things from your past? What stories or experiences can you pass on? What can you do to make your whole life something to be treasured when you leave it behind? Give it a try? I hope so.
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2007
posted by Bobbie Giltz McGarey at
8:31 PM
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