memory

Ghosts in my house

Our house is full of many memories, of our mothers, now gone, of joy of a new baby, excitement in finding a place to call ours with a climbing tree!

These memories on some days, feel like Ghosts- here are a few I notice often…

Ghost 1-Image

My mom- though she doesn’t haunt our house in the way people think of ghosts her presence is in so many things. Her influence on me to keep our house neat and tidy so we can live here without effort, her emphasis on tradition and doing things together, dining together. All of these things- and my great-grandmother’s dishes- which my mom always used to say it would upset my great-grandmother more to see them unused than chipped or broken in regular use!

Ghost 2-Image

My mother-in-law, her laugh and joy of reading permeate everything in our house. She loved sharing stories and being with our boys. Some of our favorite furniture pieces are from her home- a blue loveseat which makes me smile every time I look at it and a small side table which she laughed when I told her I used it in a garage sale to put our lemonade stand on- and had more people offer to buy it than anything in the garage sale!

Ghost 3-Image

The layers of our past residing here- from our youngest’s first steps to our eldest’s mural- each is a layer of how we have left our mark on this home. I strive to ensure our memories here have a resting place, a photo album or story written down so we can relive them again and again and add to them as we go. As well as a way to look back on them again when we do move.

While our house may be full of “ghosts” I feel blessed with all we have been able to create here, the parties, the gatherings, the guests, every one a fantastic blessing of being-a placeholder in our memories of the joy we have shared here together so far- may we have many more!

Will you be remembered?

Do we get second chances? How do you know when you fall asleep you will wake up? Faith? Hope? Foolish assumption? Officer Chapin died this week in his sleep. He, like most of us, will have no idea which day is our last until it happens. The flowers and memories pouring out in this community are moving and powerful. There are not many people who leave that kind of an impact.

What impact will you leave? Will you leave a wake of goodness, or a mere ripple? My mother’s church was full, full of family, friends, and many, many students. She was a good teacher and changed many lives with her gifts. She gave and they received, not always knowing what she gave until much later.

As I drove by and saw the flowers for our local officer I hope he knew how much this community cared about him. I never met him, but often saw his familiar face by the high school, watching, patient and pleasant. His job couldn’t have been easy. High school is not many of our best times, but I am sure, as I see in my own growing son, he saw the beauty and preciousness of his charges.

I learned via Facebook after he died that he once dressed up as Hannah Montana for the fun of it and could enjoy the fun moment in front of the school. That is someone who truly lived his life with a servant’s heart. He touched so many more people than he realized. He has left a wake, which will leave waves crashing on many shores for years to come. I am left wondering, will I leave a wake or a ripple?