January 31: Writing Prompt #31-Burnt

Remember yesterday, when your home was on fire and you got to save five items? That means you left a lot of stuff behind. What are the things you wish you could have taken, but had to leave behind?

Honestly, I had trouble coming up with 5 things to grab, and you could probably consider it a little more than 5 things anyway since a couple of mine were “collections of things,” so I would have to say there’s nothing else I would take than the things I wrote about yesterday.

Living on a military base in government housing overseas for 17 years, I didn’t have much in my home that wasn’t government owed. So, when we returned to the states (almost a full year ago now), the only furniture that came with us was a rosewood chest and a rosewood tea cart purchased while on the island.  We bought a queen mattress set a couple of years previously, but we couldn’t take it with us because it would make us way overweight with our shipment, which would cost us a lot of extra money we weren’t willing to pay.  Arriving on WA soil, we didn’t even have a bed to our name.  Thankfully, my husband had one double mattress set in his storage, and we were lucky enough to receive (from some very generous family friends) a single bed for our son, 2 couches and a TV for our living room.  Besides our personal stuff, that’s really all we had in our apartment the first six months.  We bought a dining room table within the first month, and of course, once our shipment arrived, we had our kitchen cookware and kitchen essentials and our clothes/shoes, but that’s it. And once again, just like when I moved to the Marshall Islands initially and once again when I downsized and moved into a bachelor’s quarters (the size of a small, one-person dorm room) for 3 years after my divorce, I realized during those initial months in the apartment, I really didn’t need that much to live comfortably.  I have way more stuff than I need now. Most of us do. 

I remember a time when all that stuff was really important to me.  One of things from my storage (added post divorce in 2007-because, as you may remember from my previous post, all my 1997 storage completely disappeared) that was delivered to my parent’s house is their antique grand piano. Everyone who sees it comments on it. It has a beautiful inlay pattern, and it’s a rich reddish brown color.  It’s over 100 years old, and when my mom had to move and couldn’t keep it anymore, I asked for it. She graciously said I could have it, but because I lived overseas, I had to store it. First, it went to my ex-husband’s parent’s home, and then into storage once I divorced. So, now it’s back home, but my parents are considering selling it.  I understand, and surprisingly, I’m okay with it.  In years past, this would have caused great stress to me.  I spent time in my previous life looking at homes always with that piano in mind, but I knew once we moved to WA, that the piano would never be here with us. It’s not practical.  It’s a completely sentimental attachment.  I prefer not to leave this world with a bunch of stuff that only means something to me left behind for my children to sort though.  I prefer for them to learn the same lessons I have in my life so far. 

It’s just stuff. It doesn’t go with you when you leave this world.  It’s not as important as having love and joy in your life.  It’s not more important than YOU, and YOU, and ALL OF YOU friends and family out there.  There was a time I couldn’t have imagined doing what Jesus’s followers did, which was to leave and/or give away all their personal belongings to follow Him, but I believe I’m coming to understand it more and more each day.  Not that I don’t still have too much stuff. I probably always will, but I am not so attached to it that I can’t let it go if and when I need to, especially as long as I know that all the people in my life are blessed and safe.   

“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:20

January 30:Writing Prompt #30-Burning Down the House

Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?

1. My boys’ baby albums and journals-A lot of my earliest photos (digital ones) were lost when my old computer crashed several years ago, and the rest of those early photos were on my ex-husband’s computer, so even in our digital age, it would be important for me to grab and preserve the memories of my babies that I had already printed and scrapbooked before I lost them, especially for the boys and their future families. I also have a couple of journals I’ve written in over the years for each of them, and it would be impossible today to recreate my thoughts, feelings, and perspective of those days before they were born and when they were very young and I was sleep deprived and figuring out motherhood as they grew. J   

2. My computer-All the photos, blogs, and journaling I’ve done post divorce and new marriage are on my current laptop. Yes, I’ve backed most of it up on various thumb drives, but it would be quicker and easier to grab the computer in a fire, I think.

3. Our Bali Batiks-My husband and I took a trip a trip to Bali, Indonesia as our first travel experience together. It was a yoga retreat, and it was fabulous. The 2 batiks we picked out together while there, I had framed for a wedding present for my husband. These have lots of sentimental value for both of us.  I asked my husband what he would bring, and this is what he said, so I’d have him grab those on the way out! J Simply because I don’t think I’d be able to carry everything I have listed here in my arms in one trip. 

4. Our wedding album and memory box-The wedding album could probably be recreated/reprinted since I made it on Shutterfly, but the memory box of stuff would be a true loss.  The box has the ring bearer pillows my mother in law made, some dried flowers from the day, our guest book, and lots of other goodies. 

5. My Grandmother and Grandfather Remembers books and my Grandmother’s writings.  Before my grandmother and granddaddy on my mother’s side passed away, they filled out grandmother and grandfather remembers book, and I have treasured them ever since.  My Mama Gray (my dad’s) mom also completed a book, so I have 3 total. Also, in my grandmother’s later years, my mom discovered some of her writings in a binder at her home, and she saved it for me.  This means so much to me as I have always believed at least some of my writing talent (be what it is) came from her. She was published in a few Christian magazines, and regardless of publication or not, she just loved to write, like her granddaughter, Susannah. J 

You know, it’s good to consider this because it helps you think about what’s really most important in your life. And like a lot of people, I would keep mostly the sentimental things that only mean something to us specifically. But, the bottom line that I’ve discovered over the years (especially considering the TOTAL loss of my storage from 1997-which included all my college memories, antique furniture picked out for my room in H.S., etc…) is that nothing is really THAT important.  After all, you can’t take it with you in the end, anyway.  So, what would you take, if anything? 

January 29: Writing Prompt #29-Through the Eyes of My Dog!

Go to the nearest window. Look out for a full minute. Write about what you saw.*

*I’ve decided to modify this prompt a bit. I spend 45 minutes to an hour every day outside with my dog in the woods, around the neighborhood, in baseball parks, and anywhere we can find a large stretch of woods or wetlands for him to explore, so I would like to write about what I see and hear daily while I am exploring nature with Gunner. 

Approximately 4 months ago (just shy of 4 months), we rescued a German Shorthaired Pointer from the local animal shelter.  It didn’t take us too long to realize why he had been picked up as a stray, adopted briefly, then returned back to the shelter the day we decided to adopt him…He’s an adrenaline junkie! 

Every afternoon, when I arrive home from work, Gunner begins his ritual of whining to go outside, and I don’t mean, whining to go potty in the back yard because he’ll hold it and avoid that at all costs, seriously.  He is simply addicted to all the sights, sounds, and adventure outside of his house and fenced yard.

Most days, I take him somewhere close by or in the neighborhood to run out all his energy. This entails a shorter walk around the block on the sidewalks, then letting him loose (with his e-collar, of course) in one of the water retention ponds that backs up to the wetlands behind our house.  He LOVES going here. It’s an oval shaped pond with tall reeds growing around the edges where birds love to sit and hide.  Being a bird dog, he will spend as long as I let him circling the pond and hopping into the water and through the reeds in pursuit of the birds and ducks he finds there. 

All he sees when he enters the outside world are the creatures who live there. All he hears are the sounds of the birds chirping or the other dogs in the neighborhood barking, and he is in his element with these sights and sounds.  It’s a joy to watch him. He’s so focused, so determined, so ready to be what he was created to be: a hunting dog, a bird dog, a loyal hunter’s companion. 

Gunner sees the beauties of nature where I’ve forgotten they exist, in the middle of my own suburban housing development.  We’re not on top of a mountain. We didn’t have to drive several hours to a remote hiking trail or wildlife refuge to find all sorts of animals and wonders of nature.  Without Gunner, I probably would have never explored the wetlands behind my house (which are full of untouched, natural beauty, by the way). I would have never have known there was such a magnificent view of Mt. Rainier from the dog park (which used to be the local landfill).  My husband may never have found the great recreational area and lake around the corner from our neighborhood. I may never have truly heard the birds’ songs or seen the mallards that reside right in our backyards. 

Even though I can view all the houses and streets in our area from the pond where I take Gunner to run, I still feel that I am away from it all when I am walking the banks watching after my dog. He forces me to focus on him and what he is seeing and doing (because he needs me to bring him back to reality sometimes), but that’s a good thing. It makes me not only get outside more and exercise, but it also keeps me in touch with nature, something that a lot of my generation and especially my children’s generation has lost to technology, video games, and other pursuits inside. So, even though our Gun Gun has changed our daily schedules and lives (as in the way adopting a toddler would change these things), he’s also brought us a much needed reprieve from the stresses of work and home responsibilities. He’s our excuse to explore this beautiful state, and our motivation to not take nature for granted.    

January 28: Writing Prompt #28-Ode to a Playground

A place from your past or childhood, one that you’re fond of, is destroyed. Write it a memorial.

Ode to the House on Westmoreland

I can still see my mom’s colorful petunias in their planters on the open brick porch of your 2 stories.

How I loved the honeysuckle, which grew on the back fence of your large, green backyard, enjoyed while camping out on our trampoline under the stars.

I will always remember the days of using dad’s video camera to record my BFF and I dressing up in trench coats and hats and pretending to be the stars in a mystery show in your sunken den. 

Oh the memories of putting on plays with my brother and friends in your upstairs playroom. 

How I adored playing cruise ship with the Estes family in our Jack and Jill closets and hide-a-way under the eve of your roof.

I can still picture your formal living room was where I learned to play piano and the formal dining room where I had my 50’s party with poodle skirts and old-fashioned coke in glass bottles. 

How I loved my parent’s master bedroom where I would sleep on the floor next to them when I was sick or had a nightmare and my mom’s private bath and vanity where I would have my wet hair rolled up in sponge rollers before bed. 

I will always treasure your green leaf print wallpaper in the cozy kitchen where I sat at the eat-in breakfast bar enjoying my oatmeal each morning before school. 

Oh the memories of my first 12 years of life….so many were formed within your walls and yards, good and bad, happy and sad, all these emotions are wrapped up in the home of my childhood, the rooms of 213 Westmoreland Street. 

January 27: Writing Prompt #27-Sliced Bread

Most of us have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?

The best thing since sliced bread, eh?!?! I would have to say today’s technology! Having lived out of touch with everyday technology for over a decade and ½, I have been having a lot of fun with it since returning to the land of cell phones, wi-fi, etc…I’m still not one of those who is attached and addicted to my phone. In fact, I rarely text or ever get phone calls on it.  I have it for keeping in touch with those I love, and it’s handy in the car or out and about (when I don’t have wi-fi access) to look up directions or information on nearby restaurants, and so forth.  But phones are not the only technical fun I’ve been reintroduced to since moving back to the mainland…

One of the first things I did upon moving back was visit our local public library, and I was so excited to find out that I could set up my family’s Kindles for checking out books. How cool is that?! We had our Kindles before we left the islands, but we had to go to one of the few wi-fi spots on island and purchase books that we wanted. Sometimes, the download times were really long too.  Not long after we left, wi-fi access finally arrived in resident homes, but for all our years there, we were separated from it, and our library certainly didn’t have that type of technology. I know, this is nothing new to everyone else, but for those of us who were “out of the loop” all the years that the IPOD, IPAD, tablets, and cell phones were rapidly changing and developing, it’s like being frozen in time and then entering back into the world and discovering it’s much different than when you last lived in it….like Captain America, if you will.  At first, it was overwhelming, and I didn’t want to do too much with it. It was foreign to my husband and I both, but now I’m feeling much more comfortable with using it to help make life more efficient. 

Like all man-made things in this world, there are advantages and disadvantages to technology and its use, and I do feel lucky to have lived so long in a place that was not dependent on it.  I learned how to live with fewer choices and only the basic necessities, and I discovered that the limitations of island life were actually MORE THAN ENOUGH.  I didn’t need all the things I had previously, and I think it’s helped me keep this new stateside world I’ve entered again in perspective, so I don’t become too dependent on technology and other such luxuries, which I definitely have not done yet. In fact, I still get overwhelmed with all the choices in the grocery store. I prefer to go to stores that are smaller and not so busy because it’s too much to be bumping into people I don’t know on every aisle, especially when I can’t find what I need (which seems to be all the time). It was easy on the island with one grocery store and one brand of each grocery item. I didn’t have to choose.  It was already done for me.  Coming back to the states is like entering adulthood again…all that independence all at once when I had been “told” what I could and couldn’t do all those years.  I guess you might call it culture shock.  Yes, definitely culture shock! And technology has been part of that shock factor…

Technology has also been nice for me with things like Facebook. As much as I hate to admit it, I love how Facebook has reunited me with old friends I grew up with as well as kept me close to island friends, wherever they go in the world. So, technology is my best thing since sliced bread because it’s the one thing that has changed so DRASTICALLY since I left my life in the U.S. in the late nineties, and it’s brought me closer to the world immediately around me (helping me to get to know my new home state) and last, but not least, it’s kept me closer to all my family and friends far, far away! Love you all!! Thanks for being a part of my face-to-face and online life! J