Thoughtful Thursday

This week has been crazy and busy. My parents are moving from the home they have lived in for about 11 years. They had a high-maintenance property - that is - a 1/2 acre lot with 40 oak trees. They just don't need to hassle with the volume of work it takes to keep it looking beautiful.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday this week, my folks, my uncle, myself and my friend Syndi and her twin sons worked our collective butts and got tons done. Tuesday, I wore shorts all day - I think the temperature was about 83 degrees or something. Not unbearable, but really pretty comfortable.

And then, the cold front came in and the temperature dropped to the upper 30's and low 40's. I am back to wearing sweats with PJ pants underneath, a tee-shirt with a sweatshirt over. And the rain - 3 inches in the figure I have heard mentioned. Wow! It definitely makes moving more challenging.

The freshman baseball team was to have hosted a tournament today thru Saturday - but it has been cancelled. Ryan's soccer team had a game schedule tonight, but it was cancelled too.

Tomorrow I will go back to my parents old house and box the remains that are still there. The fireman movers should be there about 1:00 to get the fridge, washer, dryer, deep freezer, mattresses etc. It has been a week are hard physical labor - but fruitful too. It is nice to purge long forgotten items we kept because they were so important. And there is cause for laughter too, like the 11 year old, never-opened jar of wheat germ found totally forgotten in the back of a very deep cabinet. I mean, really, who would do that on purpose? I just had to laugh.

And then, there is that wardrobe box sitting in the living room. Syndi started it on Tuesday with a stack of Christmas cards. Boy are the folks going to laugh when they start to empty that box . It is filled with unbreakable "stuff" we collected from all over the house. Stuff that didn't have any rhyme or reason. It isn't a collection. At the moment I can't even remember any items except for two smallish bolster pillows I laid on the top layer. It was a nice way to finish the box.

I am rambling and mostly, I am itching to share one more thing. This isn't a criticism of my parents - this is about honoring those who have gone before us. It is about loving those still close to us. It is about acceptance. It is about tolerance.

It may sound weird to some of you - but I found a mason jar in the pantry today as I boxed up the cans of peas, Tarragon vinegar (which I dropped and it spilled everywhere and shattered the bottle), boxes of tapioca, etc. The mason jar - had something clearly not food in it. But, I knew immediately what it was. I was a bit puzzled. Oh, I knew it existed, but it was tucked neatly away in my mind. See, my maternal grandparents died at different times - but both were cremated. Before my Nana died of ovarian cancer - she and Papa had decided to be cremated. My memory is that they asked my mom and my uncle to mix their remains and sprinkle the ashes in the Arizona desert. My mom, wanted to keep the memories of her parents close at hand, and to honor their lives had kept that small mason jar with a bit of her parents. She wants to plant a tree to honor them. And, I think that is special. And the right thing to do.

Still, I was curious to find that unexpected mason jar and the memories it evoked, in the pantry among such common items as peas, corn and tapioca. My grandparents were extraordinary people. So, I asked my Mom about it when she passed through the kitchen.

She simply replied, "Well, Mother liked to cook, and Daddy loved to eat! I couldn't think of a more appropriate place!"

She is right, of course. I think Nana would approve, and Papa was laughing his booming laugh at that precise moment.