He could sit staring at it for ages, and never tire. Mother had painstakingly chosen out frames, messages, prints, even some beauties brought from Cornwall, and this little one loved it. Especially he liked the small snaps of himself and his siblings, filled with smiling faces and roguish sweet pranks. Mother is uncommonly gifted at photos that make him laugh.
Last night he came into our house, on a visit. "Is this your kitchen?" he asked, looking around.
"Indeed it is," I replied. "Remember when you lived here? Then it was your kitchen too."
"My kitchen is Mommy's," he continued. "It is a nice place."
A nice place. I know this to be true because the lovely daughter makes it nice. In it, all sorts of goodies are made, milk is poured, kisses are given. Lots of laughter can be heard. All of this adds up to the happy memories we all hope our children find along the way.
That is what this small one is looking at - the happy memories. Do you notice that no one (at least no one nice) ever frames the unhappy memories? The things we want to review again again are the glad and joyful ones. It would be awful if mothers put up pictures of their children crying or fighting or pinching. Boys wouldn't sit on couches and gaze at them. Or if they did, the things gazed at would reinforce sad things and not happy things.
But Mother will never remind him of any sad thing. She likes happiness and helps it to happen. Today I read somewhere that women raising their children at home are 'missing out'. And that such women were out of touch with America. Hmm. The lovely daughter doesn't look like she is missing out. And just looking at the face of this little guy, I guess being out of touch must not be all that bad.
See you along the way!
the SconeLady
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