Seedplanter’s Porch

We’ve all been there, wondering what our next lens topic should be. Yesterday I felt mired in the mundane, feeling like no matter what I wrote about, it would fall flat.

Then my memory bank took over; it’s the storehouse tucked away in the deeper recesses of the brain, the one with the creaky door and ivy growing over the windows? I turned the doorknob on that room when I created Recipes for Life recently, too. (*A big THANKS goes to GrowWear for reviewing it at her Squidoo Lens Review blog. Mimi’s doing a wonderful service for lensmasters…visit her, please!)

The more I pondered, the more it warmed my heart and soul. And I realized all over again what a pure gift it is to be able to think back and recall not only events, but the sensations surrounding them. Do you know what I mean?

Can you imagine, not feeling connected to the past? Not being able to remember family events, family stories, and faces of loved ones you treasure?

Through the years, I’ve felt a certain void when it comes to the topic of grandparents. My dad lost his father at a young age, so of course I never knew him.  My mom’s father died when I was 19. I miss him a lot. As for grandmothers, my dad’s mother died of cancer before my parents ever met. So I had one grandma, made some sweet early memories with her, then lost her when I was four. She had a sudden heart attack and my days of visiting Grandma ended, just like that.

Maybe that’s why A Quilt Story leapt out at me, begging to be told. I had planned to share the story someday. For the past four years it has been nagging at me, but it was too painful to write about until now.

If I had a simple recipe for this lens, it would be this:

Take 1 musty old trunk, stashed in a corner of a damp garage.  Add to it a surprising discovery that might never have taken place, had 24 hours passed. Blend with a secret question my mother whispered to me during a visit several months later. Sift in measured portions of love, loss, and rekindled joy. Mix well.

Curious? I hope so.

Visit A Quilt Story: Voices from the Great Depression.  If you anticipate that this will be “just another sweet quilting story,” you might be disappointed. This one runs a bit deeper than that.

Please let me know how it affects you. I’m interested in hearing.

New to Squidoo? Make your own lens today!

*Image by -Chad Johnson via Flickr

Tags: death, faith, family, great depression, life, memory, nostalgia, quilting

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under seedplanter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.