Monday, May 01, 2006

I is for Inheritance

All around us are ghosts. I see my father's grin in my son's face. I hear my grandmother's lilt in my daughter's voice. I look at my hands, and see the knotted veins and strains of a life lived hard, lived like my mother:

I see in my face the determined jaw of grandma ruth, and the twinkle in the eye of grandma mac. i see the thoughtfulness (hence the set of my jaw) and the love. the grey in my hair is an evolution set in motion by them, while i watch my hair change in the same patterns as theirs did.









I'm surrounded by my family, by those who have gone before me. i have the leather pouch my father would carry tools in as he went about his daily work on the farm. i have the desk that grandma mac used to sew her quilts, and clothes.





I have the pie safe that grandma ruth used to store her things, while she knit blankets to warm all those she loved:










I've inherited these things from my two favorite women in the whole world. Both the physical and the emotional. I knit & sew for my family.



I sew halloween costumes, so the dreams my boys envision can come true, if only for one enchanted night.






I knit for my daughter who i even cannot seem to make happy, despite my best efforts, when they turn to others for their laughter.








And i craft for those who have no one else.


I take these gifts i've been given by my grandmothers, and great grandmothers, and all my ancestors and do my best for everyone. It's my Inheritance.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A great "I" post. Don't worry about your daughter, I think it is a mother/daughter problem that happens to all of us :-) Mine isn't talking to me at the moment and whenever I talk to her I seem to put my foot in it.

puck said...

have i mentioned how awesome i think you are? well, you are!

Trixie said...

How awesome! This is a wonderful, thought-filled post and I may print it out to look at again and again.

Recently I had a glorious experience -- after washing my hair in the shower, I caught a glimpse of a silver halo around my hairline as I toweled it dry. I was awestruck that I had finally come to the point of my life where I had earned that silver ring of hair. For some time I've colored my hair to cover the stray sprinklings of gray that have cropped up, but the halo will stay. It is the mark of my new transition.

mamaloo said...

A beautiful post, Minnie. Full of the weight of love, remembrance and longing.

Hannah said...

Beautiful. Thanks