Some Things You Keep
I send and receive around 100 emails per day across the five different addresses I maintain on both my laptop and my Blackberry. Most come and go with little or no consequence. Many are total SPAM. A few, however, make it into a file I call “Keepers”. From time to time I’ll be digging into this treasure trove and sharing those unique, special, funny, or touching emails with you. These are not things that I have written. They are simply things I believe to be worthy of passing on.
“I grew up with practical parents who had been frightened by the Great Depression in the 1930’s. A mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it. A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.
“Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee-shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, and dish towel in the other. It was the time for fixing things: a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, the screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.
“It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that repairing and renewing. I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there would always be more. But then my father died and on that clear fall night in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away never to return. So… while we have it… it’s best we love it… And care for it…. And fix it when it’s broken…. And heal it when it’s sick.
“This is true… For marriage…. And old cars…. And children with bad report cards….. And dogs and cats with bad hips…. And aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special….so, we keep them close! I received this from someone who thinks I am a ‘keeper,’ so I’ve sent it to the people I think of in the same way… Now it’s your turn to send this to those people who are ‘keepers’ in your life. Send it back to the person who sent it to you if he/she, too, is a ‘keeper’. Good friends are like stars…. You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there.
“Keep them close
“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want but rather the realization of how much you already have.”
Anonymous
Little Drops of Nectar 