"THAT drawer"

I have a drawer that really needs to be cleaned out. My husband went to be with the Lord two years ago. Since that time I have been putting many things of his in the drawer to be dealt with later. These little things have piled up. I need to make decisions. Every time I look at the drawer I'm reminded of what I need to do.

One day I opened the drawer determined to get the job done. The first thing I picked up was a small box containing pins. They were High School senior pins. His pin had Q. A. on it with a chain going to the year, 1943. He graduated from Queen Anne High in Seattle, Wa. two years before I graduated from Roosevelt High. He was getting ready to go back home to Ark., and then he would be in the Navy for at least 3 years. We were in the middle of World War 11. To my surprise, this tall, nice looking, very smart young man asked me to wear his pin. In those days it meant you were going steady. I didn't think it could be for very long, but I said I'd wear it for a while, at least. A very nervous guy tried to pin it to my collar. The clasps were so tiny and his fingers were long and trembling, but he did it. If anyone had told me at that time, that in a few years we would be married, and one day celebrate our 60th Anniversary, and have 6 children, I wouldn't have believed them. Well, that was all I could take for that day. I closed the drawer, and told myself - later.

Procrastinating Bee

Be happy for me. I made my decisions and put all my memories into a Memory Box. Since the memories are mine, alone, I don't know how much it will mean to anyone else, someday. Memories are only good if they are your own memories. To others, they will just be pins. But they are making their own memories, and that's how it should be..

That drawer is just a drawer, now.

"The Pause That Refreshes"

I grew up in Seattle, Wash. Yes, the skies were so blue, and the trees and grass were so green, but what I remember most are the mountains. I walked about a mile and a half to the U of W, and the fog would be so thick I couldn't see a foot in front of me. It was early morning when I started and as I walked the sun would burn off the fog until it would lift and the air would be so clear, the sky so blue, the green so green, and I could see the snow-capped mountains all around me. To the east the Cascades, and to the south Mount Rainier, high in the sky like a giant ice cream cone. Of course the day often turned gray and rainy, too. We are talking about Seattle after all.

Last year I was able to go to Seattle for a family reunion. I prayed for good weather because I wanted so much to see Mt. Rainier again. I had heard that air pollution hid it sometimes. We had perfect weather, and I got to see my mountain from many places - including the Space Needle. What a joy!

Years after I married and left the N. W., my husband's work brought us to Arizona. The desert was hard for me to accept. I was a very busy wife and mother - we had six children and an eight room house to care for. There were times when I would get stressed out. I guess it showed because my sweet husband would suggest a day trip to Flagstaff, and a picnic on the way. The first time we went I made the comment that seeing the mountains and trees really refreshed my soul. After that he would say, "I need to take my honey to the mountains." We made several trips, and my soul was refreshed each time by the mountains and tall trees, and picnics on the banks of Oak Creek.

"Honey" Bee

Since writing this, I've been to Vancouver, Wa. - not Seattle, but close. Along with a nice visit with my sisters and their families, I got to see some different mountains and tall fir trees.There were Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams. They probably got tired of hearing me exclaim over the mountains in the distance - since it's the norm for them. Now, I'm home again - in the desert. I wouldn't be anywhere else, because that is where my family is - and that is home to me.