Last January, the girls and I visited family in Alabama for a couple of weeks. One day, while sitting in the living room with my mom, my Aunt Freda asked me to come down to the basement. She took me to the back room that is used for storage and I helped her pull out a box of China that she wanted to give me. She told me that Mom had bought this China when she was nineteen years old but in need of some cash, she sold it to Aunt Freda.
Aunt Freda left me to look through the dishes. I was so surprised at how beautiful it was. I was expecting a busy floral pattern but instead, I pulled out an ivory colored cup with a platinum band wrapped around the top.
I began thinking of Aunt Freda's words...Mom had bought this for her hope chest. Tears began to run down my cheeks as I stood there, forty some years later, holding a piece of my Mother's hope in my hands. She once was a pretty young girl with dreams of romance and beauty filling her future. She never planned to experience the darkness of broken dreams and the harshness of a life filled with poor choices, poverty, and mental illness. What would that beautiful nineteen year old have thought if she knew what her future held for her?
Well, I wiped off the tears, placed the cup back in the box and went upstairs. I knew that if Mom had heard my thoughts, she would have told me to stop being so silly - Mom is not a very sentimental person. So, instead, I hope that Mom has seen her dreams realized through the life of her daughter and granddaughters; Because I am experiencing the life of romantic hope and finding beauty in each day. None of us know what our future holds so let's do our best to live life with no regrets and let love saturate our souls and joy fill our hearts as we take hold of each day with the same passion that Christ has for us.
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• Feb. 20, 2008 - Beautiful!