"The Seeds We Plant" (from the "Sunday Afternoon Rocking" Series) Afternoon All, Not long ago a young cousin wrote to me, telling me of the trip she made to what was once our family's old homeplace...to gather daffodils to plant in her yard. Our homeplace, taken for LBL (Land Between the Lakes) is no more, and what once existed as a thriving community of simple farmers is now a wilderness haven for wildlife. Only the flowers that annually spring bravely up in spite of a lack of attendance, are evidence now that this land was once other than what it is. They wave like brave flags each spring, and those who can remember (which are growing fewer each year) point to them and say there is where the old Dennis place stood, or the old Jackson, or whatever family made their home there for so long. And so...when this cousin told me of gathering some of the flowers her great grandmother planted, I was thrilled. She of all of us who are descendents, lives in a place that will more than likely be a permanent home for all of her life. She will take them home to her place on a hill, and she will plant them. And in my mind's eye, I see her children, a bit older, standing beside her as she points and tells them where those flowers came from, and who first planted them. They will ask questions, and this will be her threshhold for telling them of our family story. And someday....perhaps...one of her own children will either make a home where she does now, or will come to gather the flowers...and plant them in their own yard, to tell the story to yet another generation. More than just flowers, more than heart wrenching flags signaling where a family once lived for generations, they have become beacons...invitations to a discovery of the legacy that family left and the history that preceeded the family of today. And I wonder, thinking on those flowers, how many of us have such beacons...such invitations all around us? Perhaps they are not flowers at all.... perhaps it is a quilt, a stone crock, a treadle sewing machine, a cross-cut saw....or something as simple and innocuous as a ancient "button box" or a hammer...as simple as a scrap of a tattered hankerchief, a chipped cup, or a calendar long out of date. But whatever those things are, they have been kept, they have been treasured....for someone they bring back memories...and stories. And all of them are as clearly "invitations" as if they had gilt edging and RSVP written upon them. Perhaps you have these things scattered about your house, hanging on walls, displayed on shelves...and if the questions are asked, you are more than ready to answer them. Perhaps you have them wrapped carefully and tucked gently away in a box, in a trunk, bringing them out sometimes only to remember....or only to show to someone very special who will appreciate what it is you are showing them. Again, as I have so many times, I encourage you to attach the stories to the objects...lest at some point, all who remember why they are meaningful are gone... and the simple objects no longer serve as the invitation they are meant to be. And of course, without an invitation, how can anyone respond to an RSVP? Treasures can't leave with us, and those things we hold so dear to our heart must be passed on to be treasures at all. That, I have often thought, is the beauty of "matters of the heart" over material riches.....sharing is all that makes them treasures at all... Today take a look at your "daffodils", those things you have kept that in actuality are beacons...invitations to the past....and share your garden with another of your family, make sure the stories survive to lend color and beauty to the gardens that will come from those yet unborn. just a thought, jan c2000janPhilpot ________________________________________________ (Note: Afternoon Rocking messages are meant to be passed on, meant to be shared...simply share as written without alterations...and in entirety. Thanks, jan) Sunday Afternoon Rocking columns are distributed weekly on the list Sunday Rocking. This is not a "reply to" list, and normally only one message per week will come across it, that being the column. To subscribe send email to: [email protected] ___________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.