Real Questions – But Not Concerns
Last week I got together with friend, Lorraine. Lorraine worked for me in the late 1980s. She decided to be a stay at home mom when that is what her teenage daughter needed her to be. We had lost touch, though we live in the same town. I caught a Facebook post where Lorraine’s daughter, who is now a grandmother, was wishing her mom a birthday greeting. I messaged the daughter and asked if she would share her mom’s phone number with me. Since that time Lorraine and I have gotten together several times over coffee to get caught up with what has happened during the last years.
As we visited back and forth to each of our homes, our interests with quilting and fabric crafts were on paralleled paths. Lorraine’s husband passed five years ago and her home is now a two bedroom apartment, very similar in size to what Dennis and I enjoy in our home. Lorraine enjoys using the antique furniture that was her mother’s and those that she and her husband collected.
Last week I took Lorraine along to the Old Alley Quilt shop as the last of my pieced quilt tops had now been transformed into a finish quilt, ready to be hemmed. As Lorraine and I checked out all the goodies in the store, in passing she ask me who would be receiving the quilt to be used in their home. Without hesitation I remarked that I had no idea who might want it or need it. The quilting is much like physical and occupational therapy for me, and I know that the time and resources I put into the pieced top would be worthless if it were lying in a box, still just a pieced top. The ready-to-use quilt stands a better chance of being wanted or used. Thus goes the results of all my therapy.
After Lorraine and I got back from Sherburn and the quilt shop, Lorraine asked me in for coffee. As we were visiting, I admired all the beautiful sets of china and pieces of glassware that the antique china cabinets held. They held memories of Lorraine’s grandmother, her mother, and her husband’s family. Lorraine being the only one left of that generation in either family has a treasure trove of various china cups to choose from when having coffee guests. I asked her, if her daughter and her two daughters were looking forward to serving coffee to guests from this assortment in their homes. Lorraine shared that her daughter and granddaughters had never cared for the china and glassware as it was not able to be washed in a dishwasher and it was too fussy to handle.
Here we were. Both of us having more than we need for our day-to day-lives, each with a different type of excess. Neither one of us concerned to the point that we will do anything about it going forward. We don’t need to know what the morrow brings. We don’t need to know what that next chapter of our lives will contain. That may very well be the last chapter of the mystery that my life has been. I am too busy working on many more chapters, more memories and most likely a few more items that may be cranked out as I continue doing my physical and occupational therapy to maintain my quality of life.
I absolutely know that my new and added knee and shoulder titanium parts need to have me continue using the rest of the “total me” to stay mobile, or it has all been done for naught.
Yesterdays are gone, tomorrows are not yet mine. Today is all that my good Lord has given me and that is quite the gift. When my day is over and I lay my head down, I know I did the best I could . . . but I also ask Him each night that if given a tomorrow I might try to do just a bit better.