Childhood Home

    My day began with my laptop and some blog ideas headed to my childhood home. Today is one of the final moving days and it will be living its new chapter in someone else’s life in a few days. With no TV, radio or wireless I figured I would write a few blogs in one of my usual genres. But now, sitting here for the last time, it has truly hit me; this chapter is over for all of us and we are left with memories and photos (half black & white and half color). Although I haven’t lived here for decades, this is where so much of the good stuff took place. The family dinners and family holidays. There were parties and numerous celebrations. Also, sad times when family would gather to mourn the loss of the very special. Mostly, there were the everyday memories that become your very own building blocks, the solid foundation that you build your life with.

    There was a special surprise waiting for me when I arrived; a gift from the angel that has looked over all of us who have lived & loved here. For that I am so grateful. This is the home where I learned to walk and talk and write and paint; where hundreds of games of jacks were played with my sister. This is the yard where I first tried my hand at gardening, the yard where loads and loads of laundry would be hung outside in the summer breeze to dry. The front stoop is here where my Dad would sit for hours seeing the comings & goings and chatting it up with neighbors. The kitchen is here where I learned to bake & cook alongside my Mom who has prepared about sixty-three thousand meals here. A childhood home is where your roots are; it is where the values you cultivated carry you through the rest of your life. I feel honored & blessed to have been a part of this neighborhood & community; this is where my lifelong friendships were cemented.

    I find comfort in knowing that my Mom is thriving and happy in her new home. So I can say without regret, thank you for the memories and shed a few tears but knowing that the past is now past. Now, with the confidence that such a childhood home provided me, I am forever sure that the present is a gift.