Things we keep

My 81 year old mother is moving to Iowa in the summer of 2008, back to her roots. Her best friends will lived barely a wave away, and relatives well be close by. It is the time for fixing things: a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, and the hem in a dress. Things she wants to keep.
It is the way of life, people come and go, and sometimes it made me crazy. With all that re-fixing, re-heating leftovers, renewing; I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.
But with my mother moving, and I was standing in that clear morning light in the warmth of her apartment, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more. It is an end of the area and a beginning of the unknown.
My sister also going to be moving to Iowa to a different location, I already feel the loss for there is comfort in one being closer, a stone away, to pop in just to see their face. They are both very excited to start their new journey and I am happy for them, but very sad for me. Well I feel banded and left behind I realized life goes on and I need to find my own path to tread.
Sometimes we don’t value what we already have until it is gone.
Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away...never to return.
So... While we have it, it's best we love it... And care for it... And fix it when it's broken... And heal it when it's sick.
This is true: For marriage... And old cars... And children... Dogs and cats ... And aging parents... And grandchildren…And loved siblings. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.
Some things we keep, like a best friend that well hear your hearts cry.
There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special... And so, we keep them close! These are keepers in your life.
Good 'keepers' are like stars... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there in your heart!