I just rolled in – home (south) from a week at home (north) with my mom and family – and trust me that as an opportunist, spending this time with my family, when I can, is so worth it! I had brought my mom flowers as an early mother’s day present.

I am glad that I wrote this while on the road – taking a break – before home life invaded and my week memories fade… and yet, as my memories are strong from my childhood, I think memories are made from LOVE.

I think my Grandma would be proud of me, I just got a free cup of hot water from Dunkin’ Donuts then a free cup of ice from Starbucks. My Grandmother would be proud of me in other ways, but as a thrifty lady, she knew how to get her deals,  all for love of her family. We used to go to McDonald’s in the 1970’s and the hostess lady (yes they had them back then) would give free toys to the kids. Then, my grandmother would also come up and say: “I have five grandkids, can I get five of that toy?” Yes Grandma had taught us well. 

I’ve recently been digging through family treasures and even though I had a little bit of an overload of trinkets, it is OK –  those many McDonald’s toys and paint sets and Halloween outfits and coloring books and toys and play dishes and dress up clothes and and and – yes volumes and volumes of stored treasures of Love and play have shown up, stored like a timecapsule at my family farmhouse –  and not just from my generation, but a generation back. Wind up toys and puzzles, play horses, dolls and carriages, doll clothes, and those little bead mazes where you had to roll that darn bead into the right place so it would fall into the right hole – annoyingly entertaining. 

Many more treasures found in the storage rooms, including ice cream makers, repair kits for kids’ shoes, tricycles and bouncy balls, bow and arrow, nets, freezers which held ice cream pops, and don’t forget all those outside joys of swingsets, a pond of tadpoles, a field of butterflies, and snow-fence enhanced snow caves, plus vintage snow sleds – and how can I not mention that we had a whole farm to run around in…

See I don’t need always to visit a museum, I already have one. And if you think my memories are strong – my mom and my aunt’s are even stronger – and in techicolor where I see only black and white photos of that time frame.

It’s not just luck from the lucky horseshoe (which is still nailed above in the doorframe) that brought this level of activity to me and us growing up, it was pure LOVE from my grandparents and my relatives, including the grit and determination of my great grandparents to come over on the boats – and then really REAL was a big dose of hard, hard, hard work. Play is the job of a child. Giving a place to play is the joy of a grandparent, who pays it forward for lifetimes they won’t ever see.

Also on the rafters above, in one storage room, my grandma’s washboard and wash tub. Can you even imagine how she had to pump the water outside to bring it in (or even do laundry outside – I know she hung it on the line – that she still did even thought there was a dryer in the kitchen. My grandma and before her my great grandmas used to pump water outside – or get their kids to do it – until they had a pump on the inside of the house. (I just got out of a wonderfully warm shower – no strength needed for that!). Oh I am grateful for all indoor plumbing!

Pre-electricity, they were using the kerosene lamps. Electricity came in the 1940’s, the transistor radio eventually replaced with black and white tv. But the volumes and volumes of books and volumes and volumes of toys speak to an era where entertainment was engaging oneself – as well as playing with siblings and cousins. And oh the magazines, Life magazines stand out in brightness and in depth coverage, glamour was coming to fashion too alongside down home good advice just as the 1950’s women’s magazines had every imaginable crochet pattern, baby necessity, food recipe, and then some…

TIMES MIGHT HAVE BEEN POOR, BUT ENERGY WAS NOT. LOVE WAS CERTAINLY GIVEN OUT AND LIFE WAS WHAT YOU MADE OF IT.

My family now safeguards all these items and memories, filled with knowledge of farm days, animal caretaking, construction house building and everything in between. It’s important to us to remember but most importantly remember that LOVE started it and kept it all together.

My treasure that I took home from the multitudes was a plastic nativity set that family had – it is the giant sized one that matches a tiny plastic one that I have. LOVE is GOD and GOD IS LOVE – and so God is in all this plastic in spirit and truth and shape and you name it!

I do appreciate that the Lord was from before the beginning of time. I appreciate that He is love.

Our family journeys are filled with love. Even in hard times or when love seems to be lacking, there is somebody somewhere who thought of you and loved you even never having a chance to meet you – a grandparent or great great, great, great, great, great, great grandparent.

I appreciate being able to share my journey… I appreciate that my journey was made possible by family love and especially God’s love.

AMEN

………………..

Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”