Friday, January 1, 2010

A Pause To Remember

ON Totalfeckineejit's blog was a suggestion we all pause at 12 noon on New Years Day and remember those we have lost in the past year, decade or 100 years.
This is a gesture of remembrance, but also a light to hope for the coming year. Check out the festival of light and be inspired.
My list of people who have gone before me are Bob Jackson, the boy who walked with me down the aisle and up onto the stage at our high school graduation. He died in a automobile accident shortly after that. Drinking and speeding were the cause of his death. He was a passenger in the automobile and the first person my own age - that I was close to - to die. Mortality is a difficult concept to face when you are 18 years old.
Of course I gratefully recall my grandparents, Rose and Peter and Ira and Anna, the essence of everything we are today and the values we hold dear. My uncles, Frank, Truman, Ray, Bud; my aunts, Mildred, Jo, Mary, Min, Dorothy, Mary Lou and Tina.
In the photo above, right next to the candle, are my parents George and Margaret. To be born into their loving arms was one of the luckiest things to happen to me. I will miss and love them forever.
I remember Orv and Ruth, and Grandma and Grandpa Matteson - Georgia and Ernie - born in another century, believing that all you had to do with a bathtub or toilet ordered from Sears Roebuck was put them in a room and they would do their job. Plumbing? What's plumbing?
I recall other friends from school and the community, gone too soon.
In their memories, and for our children and grandchildren, let us all endeavor to make the world better in our small part of it. You never know how far goodness will spread. To start you off on the right foot this year, check out this spot on the dial, Don't Almost Give. I have found myself - too often - putting aside a charitable request envelope "for later" and then never doing anything with it. This is the year I put my energy where my mouth is, and my extra currency, also. Won't you do the same? No money? Your time, then. You will never regret it - femminismo
edited at 6:30 p.m. - I forgot my Aunt Ellen, who taught me that people who are "different" can also love life as strongly as any "normal" person and love God even more fiercely.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Happy New Year...!

I have two awards for you
that I posted 01/01/10, please
stop by and take them and
if you want, give them out
to your friends...

Totalfeckineejit said...

Lovely, Femminismo, thank you for jining in.You have the same sized photos as all my treasured old ones.I wonder what type of camera was used and why they are so small? I love the plumbing story, so funny!A very Happy New Year to you and ypours.Pip pip!
Ps. So sad about the boy that died, by coincidence I listed a schoolfriend that died just after leaving school(Asthma)but I didn't learn of his death till many years later and it really shocked me.

Julie Fillo said...

Jeanne,
My 2 lost companions are my daughters. They are not dead, just gone. They are not wishing me any joy right now.

Thank you for your kind comments. I will get through this. One of them has been doing this to me off and on for 15 years. For the other, it's the first time, and it stings all the more, because she has always been my champion and I hers.

Judy said...

I've said it before and will say it again, Jeanne...thanks for helping all of us remember those things and people we should never forget, and for doing it so poignantly. You have a special gift.

Candace said...

Ah, yes. Yet another fantastic post that gets the wheels turning. Well, My Friend Melody of course whom you know about... still I dream about her this time of year. Two years and I am still recovering. My ma, going on 14. You learn to live with it... how I missed her this year. It seems to get especially keen at times.
I have my charities and am so grateful I do. They keep me rich just as my animals keep me human.

And do bless your Aunt Ellen for teaching that different folks (like yours truly, who knows?) can love life as any "normal" person, whomever that may be! Most Excellent Advice, I say.

Take good care during the post holiday higgledy piggledy times!
Your Pal in Athens.

annette emms said...

Dear Jeanne, a lovely thoughtful post. I too have had a heavy heart for some time, but perhaps, yes I think you are right, it is good to name our sorrows. . .x

Acornmoon said...

Happy New Year to you, I hope it is a good one!

We have been doing much the same as you, keeping memories alive.