It doesn't take much to transport me back in time, back to where we were born and where we grew up. It can be the little jar of stones that I have sitting on my Memories Shelf, little pebbles scooped up from outside our home near Charlibli, Liberia. Mixed in with them is a dried palm nut. Its shape and the little holes in the end are like childhood friends. Sometimes it is the kerosene lamp sitting on that same shelf, a certain haze in the sky, the sudden sight of a snake in the grass. Once in a while, I open my little bottle of 4711 perfume and take a good whiff, and I am once again a little girl with the German ladies who smelled like that! Every now and then I cook collard greens and rice, just because I love them, and the house is filled with an aroma from long ago. No, it doesn't take much...
So when I came home one day around my birthday and found this from Gord on my dining room table, no words were needed. He knew it would take me back.
HibiscusIt is blooming, day after day,
and each time, I am a little girl again.
The blooms last a day, close up, and fall onto the table.
I pick them up carefully
because even those closed up flowers
are so familiar...
so much a part of me.
4 comments:
How blessed you are to have such sweet childhood memories Jeanette. Those of my childhood aren't so sweet and it's taken years for me to come to grips with the fact that this was my life and also to realize that the Lord used it to fashion my life. All things happen for a reason and I wouldn't be the person I am today, had it not been for who I was then. Bless you.
How I relate to all of that there -- even down to the description of the palm kernel! Wish I had one of my own. Actually, wish I had about two dozen of them to play jacks! Nothing else works as well! But along with that I'd need to have a cement piazza floor! Gord sure had the perfect gift for you this year! I'm embarrassed because I missed his birthday this year! How could I have done that! Well, maybe he'll read this and forgive me! :)
Yes, I am blessed, Louise. And you are right about all our experiences being used by the Lord to fashion us if we let Him do it. Not all things that happen are good, but all things do work together for our good when we love Him. Blessings to you, too!
And Carol-Ann, those palm kernels (actually, I should have called them dried palm nuts, since I am talking about the hard outer shell--I'm going to go back and fix that) are unique! It almost looks like a little face when you look at the end with those holes. The hibiscus plant is perfect, and Barry gave me a bonsai gardenia tree -- just a little thing that sits with my plants by the window, but it is covered with glossy green leaves and many buds. In true bonsai fashion, the buds are very slow to change. None have opened yet, but you can see a couple of them where the petals have started to separate just a tiny bit. If you put your nose right down to them, you can smell the faint scent of gardenia. I will post that when one of them opens.
Its so good to keep the memorits alive. My heart aches for days gone by too. I look at the photos and remember it all.
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