I breathe you in. I hold you in the space of my chest. My eyes get teary. My heart jumps. I smile. This is how I want to remember the early years. The smell of you and the way you need me. The feeling of holding your tiny babyness so close. The way we just melt together. The privilege of watching you grow with baby steps and giant leaps. The overwhelming gratefulness I feel that God chose me to be your mother.
A couple of weeks ago I got to be part of a great act of kindness; a renewing of an old picture and a reliving of memories. You see my Grandparents are a part of an old neighborhood. Years ago the neighbors would get together to celebrate many occasions, one of which was New Years. One of the guys from the neighborhood was a great illustrator and drew up a picture of "New Years 1962" and gave it to my Grandparents. This great illustration has been given a new life; taken from it's plastic bag, matted and framed and now hangs prominently in my Grandparents den. The idea to get it framed came from one of my brothers and then my dad took the idea and ran with it. To witness my Grandparents delight in this gift and to see them reliving the memories of yesteryear was so moving!! Here they are, 91 years old, married for 60+ years, and just recently in and out of the hospital for three months...and then before my eyes taken back 40 years. I will never forget the joy they emitted...
I often ponder things that seem to have a theme. One thing is when someone says " I am not artistic/creative" or "I wish I was artistic/creative ". These statements project that one needs to be good to be artistic and I don't believe that to be true. Today I was crabby for no good reason and I tried to snap out of it and it just kept returning and I realized I was missing something: creative time. I think the biggest difference between someone who identifies themselves as an artist and one who doesn't is the need to create. Much like someone who has the need to be physically active (running, playing tennis, etc), an artist needs to create to feel balanced and whole. An artist will create to fill the need but the final product matters less than the journey to there. A person who does not think of themselves as artistic only has the final product in mind not the journey. Thoughts?
I LOOOOOOOVe this shot!!!!
ReplyDeleteperfect! When I was was little, I used to call dandelions "wish makers"... there is something magical about them for sure!
ReplyDeleteThis is BEAUTIFUL!
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