I am as old as a TREE

I am as old as a TREE

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Happy Memorial Day

I remember Memorial Day as the Decoration Day. I know I am dating myself here. But It was called Decoration Day when you would go to the Graves of those you loved and Decorate the Grave. I would always go with my mother back to the cemetary to decorate the graves of her parents and grandparents. I remembered that Mother would always take this glass vase back that her brother asked her to make sure it got on their mothers grave each year. Uncle Miles died in 1976 I do not remember him that well but I do remember this glass vase. sealed inside were silk flowers that mother would take back each year. We always made two trips back. One was on Friday coming home from the store we would swing by to drop this vase off and then once on monday to see who had brought flowers up the graves.... maybe it was my mother was nosing and want to see if her family brought flowers up? I dont know it was just that we always did the same thing every year. and then about a month later we would stop by again and pick up this glass vase and take it home and there it sat in storage until the following year.

I remember one year mother had the flowers changed in it to hot pink and yellow and I think blue carnation.. I can remember the hot pink and yellow. she was so disappointed in the work.. wow if she could see the creations I do now.

I just remember it was such a big deal. Back East things are a little different then what they are out west. Memorial Day was just that. you knew that the peonies were to be blooming the iris were just coming out and the lilic were just about over but you still had these items for memorial day.

Now looking back at it, it ment something. I was told that they use to have pinic all day and that they would have them at the cemetary. To celebrate the day.

I can only say I have not been to the cemetary on memorial day in some time. maybe one of these years that will have to be the holiday I spend back east. When I do go back east I try to make sure I at least stop by and say hello. Yes I can hear patty say it now your nuts and they are not there... but for me, its a resting space for them.

I am not sure why but I feel something there when I step on that hollow ground.

When Jen and I were in Hawaii.. and we went to the punch bowl cemetary and we were walking around. It was a hollow place.. and Jen said to me when we were back at the car did you hear that. I said what, you did not hear that she said I said WHAT... I wish we would have taken an extra minute to stay there.

Its the same thing I feel when I go to cemetarys, I love the history... I love the idea that there is a historal setting happened with this person...

NOW ABBY I am going to write about Naki here so you might want to stop reading...

This past week I have been going over my past blogs.. I have grown alot and have learned alot and well.. I was reading a blog and the comment was made from Naki about being prepared and such a good teacher and well I just started to cry.. and then I went to his facebook page and was reading wonderful comments that people still write about him and as I am looking over this I pull up pictures of his funeral....

and as odd as this might sound... I see a piece of history, I cant really put my finger on it but I see this historial event.. I know you are all saying scott your loosing it.. but I am seeing this amazing story..

Not only with Naki, and my parents and loved ones but I am seeing this giant puzzle.. am I making any scents to anyone????

I remember the day that Linda and I are helping Matt do his Eagle Scout project and we are writing down names (WHICH MOTHER DO YOU HAVE THOSE CARDS OR DO I)? and We come across this grave and for years I have walked by it for years as a kid I played on it.. and it was this grave and it said something to the fact that here was this little child and the best I can remember fell off the wagon and was ran over... (mother do you remember this)?

I can tell you it was of white stone and has a white bridalvail bush planted next to it... I remember mother's comment that how great will be the day when these earthly bodies are reunited with there spirit bodies (she also freaked me out at this point) but I remember this so much in detail...

I can remember Old Lady Violet Kerstetter, who lived next door to us, she had one son, and he was killed by a car, and I remember as a young child looking at a picture Violet had of his coffin and all the flowers around it... the pain she must have had, to know that her little child was no longer with her in this life.

I can remember our next door neighbors the Tice's that had a total of 8 kids but only 3 of them lived. I was told when I was younger that 2 of the children were burned in a bad fire. and that there little brother watched it happen. I dont know all the details of all that, just what mother would say...

Do you think that the life as after we die as we have been taught is going to be full of so much joy... teaching moments, lessons we will have to learn? I have been taught that its going to be one big reunion with all those we have know and lived by and lived with and wow...
I going on and on and yet there is a reason for this and I am not sure what it is yet.

and then we come to what we know Memorial Day as today... The RED, WHITE and the BLUE, the flags at the cemetaries. the remembering of those who have served us and has died for us to make this land the land of the free...

God Bless America!!!

As I say this... It's not just those who have faught in a war or over seas or on the grounds of America that we honor... IT'S all those who have faught a good fight. It's the Arlene's, its the Jim's its the Naki's, its the Frank's and the Sarah's and the list is to long ... They have faught a fight for us. They have a lesson to teach us. they have helped pave the way for US... It's a young boy at the age of 14 that knelt down in a grove a trees and prayed to know which church was the right church...

It the The Savior, who gave his life for us so that we could be!

I hope this writing is clear and you understand what I was trying to say... because and hour has gone by since I started to write.... Understand that I have a deep love for those who have gone before me and that I have a Great love for those who have made this the land of the free... and that I love the fact that i get to Honor those that I love.

God Bless Each and everyone of you!!!!!

4 comments:

Abby said...

I TOTALLY understand what you were saying, Scott. Thank you for your sweet thoughts, and finding the time to write them for the rest of us to read. Happy Memorial Day...maybe just go visit a cemetary where you live to give honor to those that we don't even know...just a though.

Jackie said...

Amazing thoughts, Scott. I loved reading this. Thank you so much for sharing!

Jen said...

And, thanks... for making me tear up...geeeez man, why do you do that to me??? I wish I would have read this earlier today when I was over in the Valley area...I'd have taken some flowers for you to your parents' grave.

You know--the same tradition happens with Mom taking flowers (no, I don't go... not sure why-- I think it's more my thought of remembering people more than on a single day and knowing that the person isn't there--but all around us--make sense?). John took his mom around to his familie's graves yesterday... and pretty well informed me we'll likely be the ones to carry on that tradition...as I know I will be for my Mom.

Anyway--great thoughts, thanks for sharing...
and, now.. I'm gonna find a tissue.

LOVE YOU!

Anonymous said...

Scott...this is most certainly one of your most Heavenly-inspired posts ever...EVER!! Such a thin veil experience to read each line...I loved thinking of those who have "fought the good fight" that you and I know...I honor them as well. If you remember, the gravestone you remembered said, after recounting simply that the wagon ran over him and he died, that their "lives have never been the same." After Naki's death, I understand that better and that it is not just about the sorrow, but about tender and joyful memories and a genuine resolve to go where they have gone before. Thank you so much for the gift of insight you have shared with me on this Memorial Day of 2010! Love, mom