Happy Grandparents Day!

Sunday is Grandparents Day and so it's a good time to honor those who came before us. The people who paved the way. In other words, our ancestors.

My mother died when I was fairly young, and so I've chosen my grandmother as my guiding spirit. My muse.

She taught me many lessons. She was French-Canadian, born in the 1880's. When she was only five years old, her father left the family to look for gold in California and never returned. My great-grandmother raised seven children on her own with help from her sisters, the community, and the local government. Once the children turned twelve, they left school and went to work. My great-grandmother turned the home into a boarding house. This is how my grandmother met my grandfather. He was a boarder in her family house, working as a chauffeur for a doctor--one of the first people to drive an automobile, rather than a horse and carriage.

My grandmother experienced a lot of trauma, but, you would never guess this by her spirit. She gardened and cooked, canned her own vegetables, baked peach pies. She played the piano and sang a really lovely rendition of Tea for Two. My grandmother tap danced in the family's Vaudeville troupe, and sewed all the costumes--taking extra care with the sequins and spangles.

Oh, and she was entrepreneurial. During the Great Depression, the family sold strawberries from their farm and my mother and grandmother walked from door to door carrying baskets, wearing pretty cotton dresses and straw bonnets with ribbons--because in her words—presentation is important. During World War II, my mother and grandmother boxed up hand-me-downs and sent them to our cousins in Scotland.

These little stories--they are my legacy. When I feel blue, I look to my grandmother for guidance and inspiration. I ask myself what would she do?

You can elect anyone to be your muse, but older people are always good candidates. Why? Because they've lived a lot of history and they carry with them all those wispy, fragile memories of the past--the basket of strawberries, the spangles, the homemade peach pie. Tea for Two. The days of transition--when we went from the rhythmic clop-clop-clop of the horse drawn carriage to the explosive roar of the automobile.

Creative Friends--knowing all this, your assignment for this week is to listen for the little stories. Just listen.

Love,

Jamie