Change

Fill Your Hope Chest

Jeanna G2 Comments

Mom loved to redecorate, and rehab and rearrange the furniture, but her hope chest was one of the few pieces of furniture that was a fixture. It held our baby books, handmade family quilts and afghans, and her good silver. It wasn’t until I read a novel that described a woman’s hope chest that I actually put a meaning to the name. I just thought of it as a pretty storage trunk, but hope chests were essentially the beginning of a collection of things a woman would want to have once she became a wife, like a gown, dishes, table and bed linens, or family heirlooms. Women were manifesting their futures with a tangible vision board. If I build it, he will come. 

As for myself, my hope chest wouldn’t be filled with plates and silverware. It would have my passport and a carry-on,  packed and ready to go anywhere, at any time of year. There’d also be some of my daughter’s onsies that I saved, in hopes of seeing them on my granddaughter one day.

Hope and wait, hope and wait. 

The season of advent shares this theme, as Christians wait for the hope-filled arrival of Jesus. Many also hope for the arrival of Santa and whatever he’s got in his bag. Some of us are hoping and waiting for a fresh start in the new year. We hope and wait for a proposal, a job offer, an invitation, or an approval. We hope and wait for a letter or a phone call, or for someone to come back home. Some of us hope things stay the same, and some hope for change.

What I hope is that you hope for something; that you are filling your hope chest with beautiful designs for the future, and that peace, love, and joy surround you while you wait. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Butterfly Effect of Parenting

Jeanna G3 Comments

You’re pondering life with friends, and someone asks, “If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be?” Does something immediately come to mind? Do you wonder if it has to be just one thing, or do you come up empty? Or, are you so happy with how your life has turned out, that you don’t want to change anything and risk losing what you have today?

Do you think one change of the past could have a huge, life-altering impact? What if you could go back and change things, and your life today would stay the same, but you wouldn’t have the memory of what you changed? Would the absence of the memory alter how you go about your day-to-day, how you feel about yourself, or how you interact with others? 

I like to think I’m special because my middle school-aged daughter still tells me what’s on her mind, about her crushes and dilemmas with friends, and asks my advice. But that got me wondering, how many of her seemingly mundane, inconsequential decisions – that I’m influencing – will actually have a huge impact on where and how she’s living life 30 years from now? Are any of the decisions she’s making today going to be the ones she rues? That’s a lot of responsibility!

As a parent, I know that I have the very serious and scary job of influencing a lot of her decisions, with both my words and actions. I think the hardest part is discerning when to take the wheel, and when to take a back seat. I hope I always have the choice, because I know it’s ultimately up to her to either hear me out or tune me out. All I really know today is that, 30 years from now, if I’m asked what I would change, I don’t want to be wishing I had been a better parent. 

It’s Time

Jeanna G1 Comment

You pass by too fast

I’ll capture you in a photograph

You laugh

I’ll store you in a box under my bed

You shake your head

I’ll lock you in my diary

You just smile at me

I’ll bottle you up and place you on my shelf for everyone to see

Can’t you see? There’s no stopping me

Don’t leave, I want you to stay

Don’t worry, there’s more of me coming your way

But you’ll be different and I miss how you used to be

It’s not me who changes, sweetpea

What are you trying to say?

It is you who will leave me one day