Spring Cleaning
of Gathering and Keeping Fruit by William Lawson
"Although it be an easie matter, when God
shall send it to gather and keep fruit, yet
are there certain things worthy your regard:
you must gather your fruit when it is ripe
and not before, else it will wither and be
tough and sour. All fruits generally are ripe
when they begin to fall: for trees as all
other bearers do, when their young ones are
ripe, they will wain them. The dove her
pidgeons, the coney her rabbits, and women
their children."
there are cycles to which are we are chained despite what our minds will us to do i need to clean, i actually want to clean. with one babe away at school and her sister three years to follow, i need to clear our surroundings of the remnants of their flurried growth. so fast it’s gone. before i could clear my eyes from the wonder of their sweet bald heads and feet no bigger than my palm, they are off and running in the time it takes to clear a throat and ask, “what do you think of this,” they are gone from the dailies of the day. yet here still the board books we pored over , their pudgy books, stuffed animals, clothes and shoes to fit a toddler. i find myself at the keyboard ruffling through the memories of the past twenty years, not selecting, sorting and organizing but copying and pasting our lives to send out to the ethers. i know to make room for what’s next to come and that a broken heart becomes that much larger in its healing. but i find i cannot part with The Runaway Bunny. It’s more than i can bear.
"Although it be an easie matter, when God
shall send it to gather and keep fruit, yet
are there certain things worthy your regard:
you must gather your fruit when it is ripe
and not before, else it will wither and be
tough and sour. All fruits generally are ripe
when they begin to fall: for trees as all
other bearers do, when their young ones are
ripe, they will wain them. The dove her
pidgeons, the coney her rabbits, and women
their children."
there are cycles to which are we are chained despite what our minds will us to do i need to clean, i actually want to clean. with one babe away at school and her sister three years to follow, i need to clear our surroundings of the remnants of their flurried growth. so fast it’s gone. before i could clear my eyes from the wonder of their sweet bald heads and feet no bigger than my palm, they are off and running in the time it takes to clear a throat and ask, “what do you think of this,” they are gone from the dailies of the day. yet here still the board books we pored over , their pudgy books, stuffed animals, clothes and shoes to fit a toddler. i find myself at the keyboard ruffling through the memories of the past twenty years, not selecting, sorting and organizing but copying and pasting our lives to send out to the ethers. i know to make room for what’s next to come and that a broken heart becomes that much larger in its healing. but i find i cannot part with The Runaway Bunny. It’s more than i can bear.
By all means - do not get rid of The Runaway Bunny! It would be sacrilegious!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I need to tell you that I am really glad to have added you to my blogroll. For one, your comments on my blog are always tons of fun. The one about Jennifer Love-Hewitt made me laugh so hard that I nearly fell of my chair.
Keep those special books and later you can read them to your grandchildren, whenever they appear. I understand as my little chick has gone from home, gotten a nursing degree, gotten married and definitely flown the coop. No grandones yet, but I still have the precious books from her childhood ready and waiting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for both your comments. Tossing and sorting has never made me sad before-- but we had 2 deaths within the last year, my mother-in-law and my brother--I think getting rid of old clothes and papers and stuffed animals now just dusts up a little grief.
ReplyDeleteI WILL NOT get rid of Runaway Bunny. At the rate that I'm losing my mind it may be next on my "bedside table book." :-)