Memories and Realities

In a recent novel I listened to on tape, one of the characters asks another to search back as far into his mind as he can and describe his earliest memory. So, I've been searching my memories for my earliest recollection. No mean feat given my advancing age. I've come up with a very vivid mind-picture of a scene in the living room of our home when I was two. It was winter in Idaho (??). Joan and I were playing by a stove which gave off lots of heat, and Mother was struggling to crochet something. It's a fleeting memory but vivid.
I've actually heard the story often but not seen the event in my mind. The year was 1943 or 44, war-time. Mother has often told us that she was desperate to make a wonderful Christmas for us that year in spite of the calamaties and stridency of the world, and she had little money. She bought cheap rubber dolls and two balls of crochet yarn, but she couldn't find a crochet hook because all metal had to be donated to the war relief. My father's Aunt Eliza gave her an old, bent crochet hook and taught Mother to crochet. In the picture is that old, bent crochet hook, the doily Mother was working on when she died, and a genuine 40's era glass Alka-seltzer bottle that Mother stored her crochet hooks in all those years. Mother's struggles paid off, and Santa brought us that year, dollies wearing beautiful crocheted dresses. One dress was in shades of variegated lavendar and one in variegated blue, but I don't remember which was which. All of us remember, with great fondness, Mother's many doilies, quilts, afghans, and gifts from the "big store." That seems to be her legacy. I wonder what my legacy will be?? What will my children remember about me??

Dad tells me I need to find a new subject for my picture-taking, but he's always engaged in such fun projects. Right now, he's having to repair the damage caused when some pipes in the upstairs bathroom become old and corroded and leaked into the ceiling of the guest bedroom downstairs!!

I think in an earlier post I mentioned that Autumn has been reluctant to leave; the truth is, I am reluctant for her to leave. This has been one of the most glorious on record for a long time. The two pictures of trees are in the front yard, and I'm standing by the boat launch site at the Bingen Marina. At the moment, high wind and heavy rain are pelting the side of the house, and I can imagine a scene of heavy leaf fall and broken limbs that will greet us at the dawn. Good-bye to Autumn's splendor and hello to cozy evenings by the crackling fire!!
I sometimes think that we now live in a world gone mad!! It seems as though everyone is finding that he can promote his own personal agenda if he speaks in exclamation points and in a loud, strident voice. I feel like TJ does in this picture. I just want to turn off the world, slow all the tumult down a bit, and give us all time to ponder and soften. There is so much beauty and serenity in the world if we could just learn to turn off our own agenda and tune into the needs of others!! Then, we could all speak in soft tones, and TJ wouldn't have to plug his ears. We're well. Grandma's doing okay. We love and pray for each of you. Love, Mom

"When we come to understand not only WHO we are, but who we always have been - and therefore, who we may become - the choice between following Christ or embracing the world is really no choice at all." - Sheri Dew