Dear Reader,
Just writing today to see what comes out of my thoughts.
People don't take the time to write things down anymore. People write lists, but when the lists are done they toss them away. Keepsakes, well, we don't think about them until we wish we still had them. When I was young my mother gave me a ring that had been in our family. Truthfully, I don't even remember who owned the ring before her. My mother gave it to me when I was going to be a freshman in high school. Now some girls at that age, are old enough to respect the keepsake they'd been given. I was not.
I didn't even think about the ring until after my mother died and there it was in her jewelry box. Thank heavens she had the good sense to retrieve the gift she'd passed on to me, because I wasn't old enough to respect the responsibility that went along with it.
When I was very little, Grandpa Hale made a kitchen counter and a doll clothes closet for me. I have a picture of me mixing up cakes and cookies--the kind that are calorie free--those were the days. When I outgrew Grandpa's handmade playhouse pieces my mother stored them in the basement. When I was all grown up and visiting my Mom she suggested I take the pieces home with me. "They're something you might want to keep for your children." I did keep them. My kids did play with them, but then I lost track of what they meant to me. I was so busy with my current life at the time that I had no idea of what I was losing. Grandpa's pieces are gone now. The love from them is in my heart and I have a photo to remind me, but I wish I had the pieces here with me.
Along the way, when I was growing up, sometimes when I'd ask my mother for something like a two-wheeler bike, lipstick, nylons, or permission to drink coffee, my mother would say, "No Suzanne, you're not old enough for that right now. You need to grow up a little bit more."
I guess I'm still not old enough for some things--to understand some things. With each passing year I look at things differently than I did the year before. It's okay that I didn't understand some things along the way. That's part of being whatever age you are at the moment. A twenty-six year old wouldn't want the wisdom of a sixty-six year old, because she'd miss the moments of her age.
To see my grandfather's handiwork, click here.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
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