Saturday, July 23

Grandma's Little Red Book

I was thinking today of my Grandma. When she passed, a small red book came to be in my care. It is a collection of pages written in the careful penmanship of someone who spent a lifetime scrolling letters across an expansive blackboard. Careful letters canting to the right in a lazy, lovely flow of captured versus. She wrote in this book, quotes and captions that held some secret meaning for her...a cautionary tale, a life lesson or maybe just something to read when she needed to change her perspective. It's too late to ask her why she selected the passages; I can now only imagine why or how she chose each and every one.

On days like today when I wish I could curl back up into her lap like I did when I was young, I get instead to flip through the pages and remember her through her handwriting. I remember being young, sitting on her lap. I remember the way it felt when she ran her fingers through my hair as I leaned back into her. I remember her smell, her voice, her benevolence...the peace I felt curled there in her care.

The words of Taylor Caldwell, Piet Hein, Peter Marshall, Winston Churchill, Euripides and ...wait for it... Led Zeppelin...among others.

"Life itself can't give you joy unless you really will it. Life just gives you time and space. It's up to you to fill it." The Mountain Bar

"The first thing that popped into my head was the last thing I should've said." Unknown

"The reason that worry kills more people than work is that more people worry."

"Use the talents you possess for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang but the very best."

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." Sir James Barrie

"A girl who thinks she is too good for any man may be right -- but she may be left."

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