Webster’s dictionary defines tenacity as: determination, perseverance, resolve.
Yes, I have that. I am here to tell you . . . I have tenacity. That is not to say that it is always a positive attribute. In the negative vein you may have heard it referred to as someone that just doesn’t know when to stay down when being hit down over and over.
I relate to the positives that can be attributed to tenacity. Does tenacity come naturally to us? I don’t think so. I believe it comes from the history of events in our lives. At times when I am standing in front of my mirror and I give pause as to the direction my decisions are taking me, I don’t see my own reflection but the reflection of my parents looking back at me.
Raymond and Lena (pregnant with Noreen)
and 5 year old Elvera in the middle.
As teenagers my parents started their family working as hired farm hands. The quality of their lives was totally dependent upon someone else. My sister Elvera was born into the hired farm hand life. By the time I came along, six years later, Raymond and Lena were renting their own farm acres and working long hours with less than optimum farm equipment. I doubt there was much down time or “me” time for my parents. Three years later Calvin joined the family with two sisters to help tend his needs as Mom was never far from Dad’s elbow with cattle chores or field chores. By the time my brother Michael took his first steps we had relocated to a farm to rent that had running water in the house via a cistern. It was a joy working the pump as water came forth for bathing and cooking. To move this aspect of the story along, by the time I was in second grade I was attending rural Renville County District 34 school. I left home each morning with lunch for noon time in a syrup pail that my mom had prepared from the home of a 160 acre farm my Dad and Mom had bought. Again, there was never a doubt as to where Mom spent most of her time: it was at Dad’s side to make this farm the best it could be. When I see my Mom and Dad’s reflection looking back at me from my bathroom mirror I see tenacity.
Oh, yes, in my life I have made lots of choices. Some were good, some were excellent . . . and some were less than good. After the dust has settled over decisions, tenacity has either kicked in for shear survival or it was just the normal course of events for me. Tenacity is a part of who I am, knowing full well it may annoy those around me. Both of my children have brought me to task, each with their own experience with their Mom. That’s okay with me and I take no offense of their feelings. I have taken steps to squelch my enthusiasm when it is their very own tenacity that will serve them well. It really doesn’t hurt very much to sit on my hands for a period of time. What’s the worse that can happen other than over time you loose the feeling when they fall asleep?
I know that at my beautiful age of 70 I have a great life that is due in large part to my tenacity. I do not have it in me to stay down but to seek out a way to achieve the task at hand with a positive outcome. I don’t expect others to have my drive. It’s my drive from my life‘s experiences. I accept rather than expect.
With all this being said, the task I have at hand is calling on all the tenacity I have within me. My wonderful friend, Doreen, in reading my blog, sent me a package in the mail that reeked of a challenge. 
Doreen had read that my granddaughter, Megan, had ask me if I could teach her how to knit. I had to decline as crocheting has been my usual way to play with yarn and thread. I am here to tell you that progress is slow coming. The hands want to go to muscle memory and hold the yarn and needles as crocheting does. The first several workouts brought about very sore shoulders. The longer I worked at it I was scrunching up my entire body and before long the knitting needles were up at chin level. I have the time, and more important, I have the desire to achieve the semblance of a knitted item no matter how small or how many errors it may contain. Doreen and I are meeting for lunch next week and I so want to have some progress to take to “show and tell.” I will keep you posted on my progress as my tenacity is in full gear.
In life, please give and have no memory of it, or take and remember it always.
