My mother has been gone for nineteen years and for nineteen years I have kept her bins full of treasures stacked from ceiling to floor in two closets. Several times throughout the years I would start to dig through one of them only to get completely overwhelmed and have to quit. It was just too much emotionally. But I knew from the moment I read she had left all the papers and photos to me, that I had to go through every single one of them some day because there really was treasure in them. I didn't know what it would look like but I knew I would recognize it once I saw it.
When I broke my ankle four months ago, I was pretty upset and it wasn't really because of the pain. It was much more about being unable to have control over everything. If you don't know I'm a control freak, do you even really know me? The first few weeks were pretty gross with being completely laid up in bed or the couch, ice packs and bedside commodes. It was so gross and depressing. The mental challenges were much harder than the physical trials, truthfully. Isn't that the way it usually goes in life?
Someone made a statement to me during that time that they wondered if God wasn't trying to slow me down. We laughed about it but I couldn't stop thinking about those words. So, I started to ask Him if there was something that I should be doing during this forced downtime and two things kept running through my head. Start writing again and go through my mothers treasures. Both of those things scared the crap out of me and I really didn't think I could face either of them. But, a few days before the New Year, I decided to attempt to do both. It might not seem like a big deal but it sure was to me.
So, here we are, three months later. I've written every day and I've sorted through and mailed hundreds of photos, along with letters and personal papers. I don't really know who all reads this mess of words I write but I hope, someday, this will all be important to my kids and grandkids. Then there are the photos.
I have sent photos and notes and never heard a word back from people. I have also sent photos and received emails, texts and messages from folks telling me how much the package meant to them, that they cried, how happy they were to have what my mother had saved and I had sent. I've had phone calls from family and friends and we have laughed and cried together over what is now their treasures. It's been a pretty great journey to be on and I'm so grateful my mom entrusted this to me. Then today happened.
I received a text early this morning from a childhood friend letting me know he had received the card and photos I mailed earlier in the week. He told me he cried when he saw the pictures of his parents because he didn't have any photos of them until now. This literally brought me to tears. To think I was able to give my friend the gift of seeing his parents again was overwhelming to me. I am so incredibly grateful that my mother passed this on to me and that God brought me to the place of dealing with the task at hand. Today was worth a broken ankle to me and I seriously mean that.
Anyway, all that to say, you know those things you feel in your gut that you are meant to do, please do them. There is a reason we have those nudges that won't go away. Someone out there in the world is waiting for something you have to share. It might be words, maybe old photos, or just a moment's kindness, but they are truly waiting for it. They're waiting for you, even if neither of you knows it, yet.
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