Friday, April 4, 2014

Discovering Surprises

A little over a week ago I sat down in our new home, starred at the piles of
My Blue Blogger room
boxes and cried. The tears were a blessing as they washed away my sadness from moving away from my close friends, but somehow the cleansing opened my heart and my eyes to a new stage in our lives and in our marriage.  Jack and I found adventure in every turn on the busy streets of Norman.  Since the kitchen was boxed and hidden from me for a few days we found a variety of restaurants and grocery stores.  We've made daily trips to Lowe's and Home Depot for something simple.  We are slowly learning our way around a town where Jack grew up, and where I spent 17 years of teaching.  The times and the town of Norman, Ok have changed dramatically since we left in 1996, but all for the better.



Della's tiny books
It took me a couple of days of unpacking before I began to look forward to the tasks at hand. Very quickly I discovered that every box was full of surprises: I found a tiny leather bound hand sized book with only a passage from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.  How appropriate the first lines were, considering I'd been awake that day since 4am:

       "Wake, for the Sun, who scattered into flight 
         The Stars before him from the Field of Night..."

What a delight to sit on the floor and read through a pile of tiny leather bound books that my Aunt Della had owned.  She, too, found these words precious to her long before I came into this world.  Then I read from my favorite book The Prophet by Gibran.  The inscription read: Merry Xmas, from Lillian and Bill, Dec. 25, 1960.  Randomly picking pages to read in books like the Prophet bring their own surprises:  Speak to us of Prayer...When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.


The Pro, Johnie F. Stapp
Unpacking dad was even funnier because the silly doll truly is a replica of my father, The Pro.  My father died in 1989 six weeks after my mother.  I have carried them with me not just in my heart, but in my moves and in my boxes even now.  When I uncovered Dad yesterday I pulled up a pile of newspaper and there he was sitting comfortably in a box with pillows, glassware, and golf books (it was a random moment of packing).  I laughed, then pulled him out and found an empty corner in the living room for him to sit and watch the chaos around him grow. 

This morning I found my squeaky mouse mixed in with a scattering of glassware, puppets, and teacher collectibles. Naturally, I picked up the little mouse and squeaked it, only to have Lucy dash into the blue blogger room, and attempt to rescue me from the beastly mouse.  I laughed.  

I'm down to a few manageable boxes, then we will ponder our collections of artwork, golf books and trophies, glassware, and what nots.  In time each piece will find a new home, either under our roof or someone else's.  My mantra for this move remains:  In life and in words...Less is More...Usually the most concise way is the most elegant.

3 comments:

  1. Letty--was so nice to meet you at my aunt Pat's home. We had a leisurely lunch punctuated by lively conversation. Enjoy this new chapter in your life--and keep writing.

    :-) Kelle

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  2. Good morning, my dear friend! Can’t tell you the number of times in all our military years that I’ve looked at stacks of boxes like yours. My trick to get me going and to make our house feel like home faster was to hang our pictures on the walls almost immediately… didn’t matter if I had to move them later… just having them up spurred me on to get the rest done. We’ve been living in this house ten years come September and living in the Myrtle Beach area twenty years come June… the longest we’ve lived ANYWHERE!

    Good luck with the rest of your unpacking! Big HUGS!

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  3. Happy to hear things are falling into place and your new home is feeling like home. I will keep in touch through your blog until we meet again. Who knows maybe we can make a trip your way sometime.

    Enjoyed all the time we had together .
    CS

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