I’ve been thinking about my grandparents lately. \u00a0Something about summertime stirs up memories of family reunions, \u00a0 the shade of a huge oak tree and the sound of an old country house at night. \u00a0One of Mamaw and Papaw’s favorite places was \u00a0the swing on their front porch. \u00a0It seems like every time we drove into Belmont for a visit, \u00a0they were waiting on that swing. \u00a0Each evening we would gather on the front porch and the two of them would sway back and forth, side to side, on their personal wooden throne. \u00a0I can still hear the mesmerizing sound of the chain slowly moving.<\/p>\n
There weren’t many stories of wild adventures told on that porch but I heard about the joys and sorrows of most everyone they knew during those visits. \u00a0 They lived in a small world but they knew how to enjoy the simple things of life and how to love \u00a0people in a big way. \u00a0 So many scenes flash through my head: \u00a0Walking through the woods to check on a relative that had been sick, \u00a0Papaw eating watermelon, Mamaw bringing chicken-n-dumplins’ \u00a0to the church social just for me, gathering eggs from the chicken coop, learning to drive on dirt roads, building a lean-to in the woods. \u00a0Nothing extraordinary but everything priceless.<\/p>\n
My girls are growing up. \u00a0I am not unaware of the fact that they will be gone in a few short years. \u00a0On good days I am so proud of our family and the love we share. \u00a0On bad days I wonder if they will remember simple, priceless things about our life. \u00a0The thought that they will one day bring their families to see me is exciting. \u00a0The thought that they would then have to leave isn’t so exciting. \u00a0I can still see my grandparent’s faces when we would drive away after a visit and can only imagine that the emptiness never really leaves a parent’s heart when their children leave the house. \u00a0 I wonder if they knew that it hurt my heart to say goodbye or that their life was a point of pride for me. \u00a0It’s hard to explain how but their hard work, \u00a0perseverance in heartache, faith, contentment and love stitched together a blanket of security that I still wrap myself in. \u00a0It’s my heritage. \u00a0It makes me who I am and it motivates me to be better in honor of them.<\/p>\n
I had Steve hang a porch swing for me. \u00a0I want \u00a0to spend more time out there on these hot summer nights and I hope my grandchildren think of me \u00a0in 50 years are so and remember how much I loved them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been thinking about my grandparents lately. \u00a0Something about summertime stirs up memories of family reunions, \u00a0 the shade of a huge oak tree and the sound of an old country house at night. \u00a0One of Mamaw and Papaw’s favorite places was \u00a0the swing on their front porch. \u00a0It seems like every time we drove […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[187,189,242,490,559,567,589],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-fall-nights","tag-family","tag-grandparents","tag-seasons","tag-summer","tag-swing","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}