Monday, September 21, 2015

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...the Story of My Life!

My husband and I live the life of that famous children's book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I am sure you remember the book from childhood or from the childhood of a baby in your life. The story goes like this:
If you give a mouse a cookie, he is sure to want a glass of milk...
If you give the mouse a glass of milk he will want a straw...
The story is about how we get lost in our thoughts following streams of consciousness as we wander endlessly from one task to the next never completing anything.

And so it goes...

Only 7 years ago my grandchildren
and our children
 watched the swifts
go down the chimney of a school here
 in Portland. I had forgotten that
beautiful late summer evening.
My husband went to a local hardware store and bought a set of shelves so we could try to get organized...again. All of the crates that has been stacked against one wall in the garage were placed on the garage floor. I had not actually seen what was inside those boxes since we moved into this house 4 years ago.

The first box I opened had a small green box of pictures from all those years ago. And there were albums my mother had put together for my children when they were small. Those children are 49 and 52 now.

The temptation was more than I could handle and this mouse needed that glass of milk, a big chair and, of course, time. I was looking at old pictures and no one could stop me.

The garage revamp came to a halt for me and I was lost to the past.

The mind does funny thing and, as I went though the pictures, I realized that I had forgotten all those wonderful times...my children hugging each other, the view from the window of a house long since sold and forgotten. For some very strange reason all I could remember was the stress and the angst. That discovery of pictures from the past broke the spell.

It could be that picture albums are worth their weight in gold. Maybe I should let my inner mouse wander around more often. What do you think?

b+


6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Have a wonderful day Meryl...let your inner mouse take control if only for a few minutes.

      Delete
  2. My husband and I call them "squirrels" after the dog in the movie "Up." We are constantly getting distracted while trying to finish a project. Pictures of your kids long ago is a lovely distraction (especially from cleaning the garage).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My father called it "grasshoppering" and accused my mother of hopping all over everything. It was a lot more fun that cleaning every corner in order!

      Delete
  3. Isn't it nice to have the time to get "lost"!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes it is. I get goose bumps just thinking of all those pictures.

      Delete

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