The Speed of Time

So, it was my intent to speak with my family about their favorite flowers and I’m afraid that I haven’t fully reached the information that I was intending to collect.  My oldest sister told me that her favorite flower is a hydrangea and my other sister was pretty sure that my mother’s favorite flower was a cyclamen.  The thing is, I don’t ever remember having cyclamens in our yard.  I didn’t become aware of these flowers until the 80’s myself.  That sister likes double peonies and that is the flower that I thought was a favorite of my mother-in-law.  I have found that many people like roses, a lot, and orchids pop up from time to time.  What I find troubling now is, remembering who likes what flower.  I really should write it down somewhere.

I wrote a song yesterday and am working on making my music happen on this blog.  I played it this morning and then changed it’s title to, Yesterday’s Song.  Do you have a favorite song, and if so, does it take you to a certain memory every time you hear it?  Share your thoughts about that song this week with someone.  I’ll cover mine in the blog next week.  It’s by Elton John.

Parent’s favorite flower.

I want to thank you for reading my first blog last week.  I still don’t completely understand how you saw it, but I’m happy that you did.  I had one reply on my blog site and some by email.  In my book, “in Grandma’s Shoes” I said that my word to describe my childhood was bittersweet.

I’ve come to realize that we often don’t take in the most subtle of information about those we spend the most time with. My mother, has dementia and can not remember what her favorite flower is. This is not something that bothers her.  It bothers me that I did not know what her favorite flower was.  I should have known the answer to this so I could help her be familiar with something she would have known about herself.  With that thought in mind, I should not be down on myself for those things that I can not change.  It is important to me that I spend my time knowing and understanding those people in my family that I am close to.  I can only achieve this through communication and actively seeking out information from them.  I have come to realize that time is a precious commodity.  We often don’t know how much time we actually have.  So with that thought in mind, I plan on asking a personal question of each one of my family members this week.  I think I will start the conversation with something like this….Do you know what my favorite flower is?  I’ll reveal my results in the next blog.  Oh, my favorite flower is the daffodil.  The fields on High St. in Santa Cruz were filled with them each spring.  I vividly remember how they looked and smelled.  There are houses there today.  I’m so thankful that I can still visualize that scene in my mind.  I wrote a poem a few years ago about those daffodils entitled Daffodil Spring.

View from Stony Creek, Connecticut.

Cover for “in Grandma’s Shoes.”

Describe your childhood.

I’ve been talked into blogging by Balboa Press, the publisher of my new book, “in Grandma’s Shoes.”  I’ve never done this before but I’d like to think that we all could be a little better at communicating.  I’ve come to realize that we can share our lives with people and never fully know them.  I would like to become better at communicating myself, and so I’ll use this blog to create ideas for you, your family, and your friends with the hope that we can all become better acquainted.  I’m looking forward to seeing ideas from you as well and I will be actively in search of answers in-between blogs.  

Here is my idea:

(In the preface of my book I had asked this question of my husband.)  How would you describe your childhood in one or two words?

Have fun with this and explain to whomever you’re talking with, why you chose that word or words for your description.