Back to Basics

I've now logged over 200 posts since I first began my blog in April, 2008. Whodathunkit? I've recently been having great fun taking photos of my day lilies and other flowers in my yard, and posting them for all the world to see and yawn over -- yeah, yeah, another flower! So what?

However, I recently had an email from my youngest daughter, who currently resides on the island of Okinawa, Japan, telling me that my flowers were "pretty" but she would really like to have more "stories." That comment reminded me of why I started a blog in the first place. Forgive me, I quote myself from Post #1:

"It's the discovery of those other sites which has encouraged me to begin my own journal of remembrances. At age 73, I am still blessed to have a good memory that, at present, goes back quite a long way. I decided that while I still have that capacity, I'll jot down a few random remembrances of my life, along with some current happenings. Fear not! I'm not going to post a chronological listing of all my life's events. Some are best forgotten, anyway!

I hope at some time my remembrances will be of interest to my family, and perhaps to others, as well. I don't make any assurances that they will be "fascinating," however!"

My father used to tell me (regularly) during my formative years that if I could not excel at something, "for heaven's sake have the decency to be an abject failure. Nothing's worse than being 'average.'" (Daddy had very high standards, for himself, his wife and children, which was a bit hard to tolerate at times, and made nervous wrecks out of several of us. Daddy died when I was 30, but his words had a lasting effect: at the age of40, I received an "average" performance rating from a supervisor for whom I had worked for one whole month. I was devastated and, I'm sure, shed more than a few tears -- in private, of course. It was the only such performance rating I had ever received, or did in future receive, in my entire career.)

So...I've done a bit of soul-searching during the recent blog-dry period. I have accepted the reality that I will never, ever, ever, take as beautiful and beautifully composed photographs as Kate, Abe, David, Hilary, Klaus, Mojo, the East Gwillimbury WOW, and myriad other wonderful photographers, nor will I ever be able to put into words and share the deep, heartfelt and beautifully expressed thoughts of Janine, Ruth, Jeannelle, and countless others, nor be as witty, funny and clever as rhymeswithplague (who is also erudite), Arkansas Patti, and Flurrious, nor write poetry like Jinksy. (Note: most of the myriad 'others' have links in the sidebar of my blog.)

Therefore, I am taking cowardly refuge in something I know I can do better than any of the above mentioned -- to write the remembrances of my life, since no one else has lived my life, and no one else can report my memories. Whether or not they are written "excellently" is of little import. They will be what they will be.

How strange! I think that's what I intended to do in the first place! How easily I was led astray!

Oh, I'll still post some flower and other photos, but I'll (try to) save those for Today's Flowers on Sundays.

I'll close this post with one very recent memory: I distinctly recall having called the refrigerator repairman before noon yesterday. He assured me that he could have my problem fixed before the day was out, but he would have to pick up some parts in Little Rock. At 5:30 I called to remind him that I needed to leave for my mid-week church service. I distinctly remember that he said he would be here at 10:00 a.m. this morning. My clock says it's almost eleven, and I haven't heard from him. Am I losing my memory?

Tomorrow, Lord willing, a story.

P.S. The repairman just called. He's on his way. Guess my mind wasn't playing tricks, after all.

ADDENDUM: He came, he stayed, he fixed it and it set me back $160.00 (notwithstanding the "senior discount." Oh, well!