Comforting Things for Uncertain Times

Comforting Things for Uncertain Times

I don’t know why but it seems that everything is more scary at night. If there is a pain anywhere in the body or worry on the mind, it escalates at night. Then there are the things that go bump in the night that may have also bumped in the day but the sound is more sinister and mysterious at night.

At night when sleep doesn’t come and the mind races and thinks about problems, it helps to think of comforting things. One way to think this way, especially at night, is a way that my friend, Lois, shared with me. Sometimes at night when she can’t go to sleep right away, she uses her imagination and thinks of comforting things. She closes her eyes and imagines the house where she lived as a child. Although the house no longer exists today, she could still see every detail in her mind as she would slowly walk up the pathway and enter her house. I decided to try this for myself one night. Come along and see:

As I close my eyes, I can see my childhood home in front of me. I hear tiny pieces of gravel beneath my feet crunch as I leisurely walk toward the steps to the porch. I see the piece of sidewalk near the steps that has a deep crack and sits a little crooked. As I go up the steps, to my right there’s an old wagon wheel, painted white, with a pinkish white hibiscus flower growing around and through the spokes of the wheel. As I step up on the porch, I feel the coolness of the concrete beneath my bare feet. My dog, Gerty, is lying on an old rug near the porch swing and jumps up, wagging her tail, to greet me. I stop to pet her and then I walk over and open the screen door. I step into the house and I hear the sound of the screen door as it slams behind me. I smell vanilla and I know Mama is making vanilla pudding and it makes my mouth water as I hope there will be a banana to add to that pudding. I can see the kitchen off to my right from where I’m standing, and Mama is stirring the pudding as she moves it from the stove. She’s wearing a black summer dress with swirls of pink and white flowers on it, she looks beautiful to me. I put the books I have carried home from the bookmobile on the table to my left. I will read them later. Further in front of me and to the left is the radio. KIRX radio station is playing a song and the Everly Brothers are singing, “All I Have to Do is Dream,” and I sing along with the radio. Daddy walks in from the kitchen. He smiles and adds harmony to my melody then he reaches for Mama and dances with her.

That’s all I remember before I fell asleep but my friend was right. It was very comforting to think about those things. Whether your thoughts go to your home place or to your favorite fishing hole, it’s worth thinking about good things that brought us comfort in the past, especially during trying times.

One of my most comforting childhood memories is lying in bed after prayers and hearing the comforting sounds around me. Sometimes Daddy was still up, walking around the house playing the accordion and I was lulled to sleep by songs like Sentimental Journey. Other comforting things before falling asleep were the sounds of evening. Sounds such as dishes being put away in the kitchen, doors being shut for the night, a horse neighing in the pasture, and the comforting sound of the lonesome train whistle in the distance. To feel safe and secure in the sameness of life and knowing my family was near was a blessing. I think Robert Browning captures this thought with his line, “God’s in His Heaven and all is right with the world.” Comforting words that tell us that in this uncertain world, we can know peace.

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

Pippa’s Song

by Robert Browning

The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven,
All’s right with the world!

By Pamela Perry Blaine

January 2021

Nostalgia

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past.” It is usually a pleasurable, bittersweet experience or a feeling of homesickness for a time in the past that held significance or good memories. I often write articles about what people would call nostalgia. I call it nostalgizing, although I don’t know if that is a word or not.

I didn’t think of my writings as nostalgic because when I first began to write, it was because I wanted to pass on family history to my children and grandchildren. I wanted them to know and remember the special relatives and friends that were here before them that they never had the opportunity to meet personally. Although most of those friends and relatives are now gone from this earth, they shaped our lives and helped make us who we are today and writing it down is a way of hoping future generations will know more about them and love them too.

Lately, I began thinking that maybe I should quit writing these stories. I wondered if they were helpful to others at all because it seemed to be looking backward instead of forward and we all need to think about the future and what we can do to make a difference for good in our world today.

When I looked up the word “nostalgia” I found that in the original language it is a compound word that means “homecoming” and “pain”. Then I happened to read an article that said that in the late 1600s, nostalgia was thought to be a neurological disease or disorder. I thought, “Oh great, what have I done?” However, as I read on, doctors later found that nostalgia was a good thing because nostalgia gives people roots and a sense of belonging. Nostalgia supplies strength to move forward and they also found that it counteracted loneliness, boredom, and anxiety.

Nostalgic stories often tell us about hard times and may sound depressing at first but a person nostalgizing may review a story from the past and be given hope. That grandfather or other relative who lived through a hard time like The Great Depression, a bankruptcy, or a terrible disaster gives us hope that situations can change. Maybe our own story of how we struggled through a catastrophe of our own will give someone else the hope of getting through a tough time. In other words, we can be an example to others by coping well through our own hard times. Studies have shown that soldiers who are away from home, people in nursing homes, or people who are home bound, benefit from remembering better times. This kind of nostalgia causes them to look forward to better times and they even begin to smile and laugh as past times are remembered.

If you think about it, there will come a time when future generations will be nostalgizing about us so perhaps a good way to help them when we are gone is to be making memories now. It’s not really something that you have to work at doing because children remember things you would not expect. I onece asked my children what they remembered from their childhood and I got answers like:

“I remember playing in the hayloft and using a rope to pass things up and down from the loft.”

“I remember coming home and you had made brownies!”

“Did you know I buried your steak knives in the woods?”

“I remember when we painted my room purple”

“I remember being Lazarus at church and Jesus raised me from the dead”

“I remember on road trips it always rained caramels in the van”

“ I remember playing fox and geese in the snow.”

These memories told me that it isn’t some big gift they remember or even a trip to a theme park that costs a lot of time and money. It’s the little day to day memories and being with family that is important to them. Oh yes, sometimes they throw a fit about having to take part in a required family outing or activity but when told that it was a family event and they were part of the family, the fit thrower who balked in the beginning ended up having the best time of all.

Do you ever do any nostalgizing? What do you remember?

I suppose I’ll keep nostalgizing and writing about it now and then. After all I don’t think I’ve told you about when Grandma Laura was 80 something and that big white rooster attacked her. Let’s just say he never bothered her again after being bonked on the head with her walking stick.

“Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.”

Deuteronomy 32:7

By Pamela Perry Blaine

January 2021