Proust #22 What is your most treasured possession?
Sorry, I know I’m late today. I got sidetracked.
What do I treasure? If my house is on fire what is the one thing I take out with me?
People and pets have to be a given, otherwise this question is over already.
Pictures are the next obvious answer because none of us want to lose our children’s baby photos or our wedding photos (if you’re lucky enough to have some – I don’t have many, something I blame our crazy photographer for, but I still have the husband so that’s better anyway).
I don’t have a huge attachment to things, but I suppose I’d feel differently if all I had left were ashes. I know enough people, my husband’s family included, who have lost everything in a fire, and yes, they miss their things, but things can be replaced.
I guess, in a round-about kind of way, I’m saying this is a really hard question for me to answer. But I CAN tell you about something I’ve had since my 13th birthday that is so special even over 30 years later it continues to encourage me and remind me that I do have something worth sharing with the world.
It’s a letter my granny wrote to me. I keep it in it’s original envelope in my cedar chest. My granny’s been gone for a long time, but her words are still here on those beautiful sheets of stationary. Her printing is precise and lovely and very European in their form.
I’ll attach a photo of the letter. I think it’s beautiful.
So why is it so special? Because every now and then, when I think I’m not really fulfilling my purpose, that I’m not using my talents and abilities to make the world a better place, I hear my granny’s words in my mind and I’m reminded that I wasn’t put on this earth to take up space, I have work to do.
And should, God forbid, my house ever burn to the ground, I’ll miss the letter, but it’s still just paper. The words have been written on my heart and in my mind and I’m grateful for them.
What’s your most treasured possession? I’ll bet it’s less about the thing itself and more about who or where it came from.
