I spent yesterday going through piles of things that I have saved through the years, precious things like notes from my kids (apparently every time either one of them wrote "I love you" on a piece of paper, I saved it), the books they wrote when they were in preschool (they drew the pictures and dictated the stories), letters of appreciation from students, that kind of irreplaceable artifacts. When you're trying to get rid of paper debris, the task seems impossible, but each of these papers represents something I want to remember, and that, the memory, is something to be thankful for.
Archaeologist
Digging through layers of love:
Years that I have lived.
Here's one of the paper treasures that I took pictures of and then discarded. It was a whole section of the Lexington Herald-Leader from November 24th, 2004, in an envelope. It contained a letter I wrote to the editor. Now the newspaper and the envelope are no more, but I still have this memory:
Birdtober? Gratiku? What's up with me and these made-up words and daily posting? Well, I've learned that a tiny little burst of creativity each day helps keep me going, stops me from being entirely fixated on the mess. That's why I post daily photos on Facebook. And that's why I'm doing these writing projects. This one is a daily haiku about something I'm thankful for. (A gratitude haiku - get it?) As long as the internet keeps working, I'm going to try to post one every day in November.
4 comments:
We have some overlap this week, Ruth. In addition to a similar theme between my PF poem and your newspaper letter, I have been going through old papers too. I found a ranking of favorite holidays by my oldest (Christmas was the winner). Also a half-birthday card she made that said, "Don't Give Up!" (which I assume means "you're halfway to your real birthday!")
I love this, Ruth.
Ruth, you gave me a great idea to save memories and yet save the environment, also. I like your gratiku for the day.
Yes, those gifts will keep on giving, even now, your words are touching us, Ruth. What a wonderful thing that woman did. I've taken the extra time at home these past months going through things, too. Maybe the months have given us all a chance to do that.
Post a Comment