More Random Thoughts

Wow! This was a lifetime ago. I loved that cat, Patches, a beautiful calico. You can't see all the color that I remember vividly just by looking at this picture. Dad's flower gardens were wonderful. People drove for miles to come see them. Red poppies are behind me and the Chinese bamboo beside me provided sails for little boats we would float in the drains in the driveway or the water that flooded the back lawn in wet weather. The elm in the background..., which was one of many that surrounded the house and provided shade, long since succumbed to Dutch Elm disease and were cut down. I don't imagine the cement walkways that had our foot and handprints have survived. The house my dad built has long since left our family but I don't even need to close my eyes to see it as it was, every square inch of it and I remember all my wanderings as a child through fields and pathways to the river picking berries or just enjoying being outside, all those spots changed now with the passing of so many years. Memories both warm and hurt the heart, a double edge sword, but all in all, I have good memories and those help pull a person through the bitter times we all face at one time or another, and somewhere deep inside, that little girl holding her beloved kitty still survives, still curious about everything, still wanting to know the names of everything she sees in and around the fields, and in spite of what life has brought, still hopeful, loving, and forgiving. What more can one want?