A Growing Glow

As night drew on and from the crest of wooded knolls that ridged the west

The sun a snowblown traveler sank from sight beneath the smothering bank

We piled with care our nightly stack of wood against the chimney back

The oaken log green huge and thick and on its top the stout backstick

The knotty forestick laid apart and filled between with curious art

The ragged brush then hovering near we watched the first red blaze appear

Heard the sharp crackle caught the gleam of whitewashed wall and sagging beam

Until the old rude furnished room burst flowerlike into rosey bloom

While radiant with a magic flame outside the sparkling drift became

And through the bare-boughed lilac tree our own warm hearth seemed boazing free

The crane and pendent trammels showed the Turks' head on the andiorns glowed

While childish fancy prompt to tell the meaning of the miracle

Whispered the old rhyme "Under the tree

When fire outdoors burns merrily there the witches are making tea."

If you've read this far, this is one of the pieces my paternal grandmother (1895-1978) wrote many years ago. How does this fit with What We Remember and how we grow forward?

We often think we're not much during our lives. Stories have been told about my grandmother and how she felt about herself--tearing her rendering out of photographs because she thought she wasn't attractive. Yet you might agree from the photo above that while she wasn't classically beautiful, she was lovely and seemed to have a grace about her.

What makes her special is she was an artist and poet long before she went to school for it after she was 60. As a young person, she would ride a horse up into the Appalachians to teach children art because she knew they wouldn't be exposed to it with what little education they did get.

Why is any of this noteworthy? I didn't know her when she was alive. I'm meeting her through stories. And those stories are changing my life.

I went to college myself at 40 after learning she got a teaching degree in her 60s. I'd never attempted anything art related until I got to see many of her paintings and decided to give watercolor a try.

The past has changed my future.

Who's in your past? Who's that someone you don't know much about? Maybe it's time to learn about your past to get some insight on where you have hidden passions and abilities you hadn't considered.

If you knew your great grandfather was a skilled clockmaker, would you want to know more about clocks? What if your great grandmother was a skilled archer, would you give it a try? Maybe there's more locked up in your DNA than you think--maybe there's something wonderful to discover about your own self.

Find the historian in your family--you might learn something about yourself from the past.