Memories

My granddaughter took this picture and I liked it so much because it makes me think of slow, lazy, relaxed summer days; sitting in a chair on the porch and reading a good book while watching the clouds go by overhead and listening to the birds singing. There are just some things that really get down deep inside of you and cause you to reflect on things. I love thinking back on old memories: memories of childhood fun and friends; those sweet moments when our family was young and all the children still living at home; holding babies and rocking them to sleep; camping trips with our girls when they were young; walking through the woods on a quiet afternoon and listening to the sounds of nature; time growing up when my Grandmother lived next door to us and we were always over there and she would be making her homemade noodles and beef and homemade apple pies; the smell of bread baking in the oven; my Mom dancing with a kitchen towel in her hands to music playing on an old phonograph on the kitchen counter; quiet and reflective times in a cabin in the woods looking out to see the sun streaming down to the forest floor through the branches of the trees. These and so many other memories that I have treasured up in my mind to take them out one by one just when I need them. God is so good to allow us to have these treasured memories! Of course along with the good comes to sad also, which most of the time we don't like to bring these up again and think on them; although at times they just seem to surface unexpectedly and catch us off-guard, don't they? It's times like this that a favorite poem comes to mind; it's called The Beautiful Lady of Tears by Ella Wheeler Wilcox from her book Poems of Pleasure.

The Lady of Tears

Through valley and hamlet and city,

Wherever humanity dwells,

With a heart full of infinite pity,

A breast that with sympathy swells,

She walks in her beauty immortal.

Each household grows sad as she nears,

But she crosses at length every portal,

The mystical Lady of Tears.

If never this vision of sorrow

Has shadowed your life in the past,

You will meet her, I know, some to-morrow--

She visits all hearthstones at last.

To hovel, and cottage, and palace,

To servant and kind she appears,

And offers the gall of her chalice--

The unwelcome Lady of Tears.

To the eyes that have smiled but in gladness,

To the souls that have basked in the sun,

She seems in her garments of sadness,

A creature to dread and to shun.

And lips that have drank but of pleasure

Grow pallid and tremble with fears,

As she portions the gall from her measure,

The merciless Lady of Tears.

But in midnight, lone hearts that are quaking,

With the agonized numbness of grief,

Are saved from the torture of breaking,

By her bitter-sweet draught of relief.

Oh, then do all graces enfold her;

Like a goddess she looks and appears,

And the eyes overflow that behold her--

The beautiful Lady of Tears.

Though she turns to lamenting, all laughter,

Though she gives us despair for delight,

Life holds a new meaning thereafter,

For those who will greet her aright.

They stretch out their hands to each other,

For Sorrow unites and endears,

The children of one tender mother

The sweet, blessed Lady of Tears.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox