Treasures Of The Heart...



Today as I carefully packed this fifty-year-old Christmas card away with all the other decorations, I smiled, and was reminded of how our personalities are shaped in so many ways and by so many things as we grow. On the inside, it says, "Merry Christmas to Mother and Daddy Love, Kathy."

I don't remember making it, but what I do remember is having a coloring book at my grandmother's house when I was about six. I remember asking my uncle if he wanted to color a picture in my book. I watched him as he outlined and colored each item on the page. I clearly remember thinking how beautiful his picture was and how I needed to outline if I wanted mine to be beautiful. To this day I outline every picture I color. I think that simple experience may have shaped me, may have caused me to be more careful, more meticulous, wanting my efforts to be just right, or maybe it had nothing to do with anything at all.

I found the card while cleaning out my parents home after both of them had passed away. It reminded me of how, we as mother's save so many little things our kids make for us. We save ornaments that we hang on the tree year after year, construction paper paintings, letters they've written to us... We save these things never knowing what will become of them when we're gone.

A lot of things have to be thrown out. You can't keep it all, but every now and then something comes along in the form of a treasure. You know it's a treasure because it speaks to your heart. This is one of those treasures. The heart kind. The kind that reminds us to remember.

It reminds me of that little seven-year-old girl who must have been outlining and trying to make her picture as beautiful as she could. It reminds me of time spent at my grandmother's house and of the mother who lovingly put it away, only to have it resurface 50 years later. I'm glad she did. I framed it and hung it behind the Christmas tree.

Today I carefully packed this fifty-year-old Christmas card away with all the other decorations. I wrapped it in cotton batting, the kind that sparkles with glitter, and when it resurfaces again next year I'll smile, and I'll be reminded, and I'll remember.

I hope your January has started out to be the beginning of a great new year.