Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Touched

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I’ve lived my life surrounded by the things that others have touched--made or used—loved by their hands.

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Some of those hands I touched—some were gone long before I came here—but I love those hands just the same…

 DSC02683_edited-1 {my shelf of shoes worn through the generations while being married, being babies & while dancing…}

Things worn on significant occasions…

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…pretty things used in in Victorian days…

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The 1930s piano we use daily, a gift from my great-grandmother to her daughter, my grandmother, when my mother was born…

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…complete with the baby teeth marks remaining from my mother’s teething days, lovingly left as a physical reminder of days never to come again…

DSC02694_edited-1 {a great-grandfather’s well-used ivory shaving brush}

…everyday items essential to looking their best…

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…the very old glazed pipe of my plantation-living 3rd-great-grandmother from Virginia…

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…those ever-important keys to everything—opening houses I’ve never been inside of and cars long since idled…

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…lockets and watches—treasures dearly treasured and worn every day—now tarnished and still—but treasured even more dearly…

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…baby booties created by nimble hands with hook and needles in anticipation of a new generation to love…

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…beautiful laces of all kinds—collars and trims, tablecloths and doilies—made and used by the the skilled hands of many generations of mothers before me…

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…satiny baby blanket lovingly quilted for my baby mother by an auntie that would never have babies of her own…

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…glasses worn by my little-girl grandmother—the sweet round spectacles of the 1920s…

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As I walked through my house this  quiet morning—seeing these and oh, so many more evidences of other lives--I feel surrounded by the love of all those I can no longer see….

And I am touched.

Julie

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