Another "Scan It" Sunday...

Dear Diary,

A mild, rainy Sunday...time to rummage through the box of old photographs for a memory.  I'm not sure where this one was taken but it is me and my grandparents.  I am, as usual, holding some small animals, kittens this time.  I was a magnet for any little creature in the vicinity. 

I brought home many stray and injured animals and my grandmother and I nursed them.  I remember one robin with a broken leg that we took to the vets.  He set the leg with little Popsicle sticks and I paid him out of my change purse. That little bird recovered and stayed around the house for a couple of years.  I could always tell him apart from the others because he hopped with a slight limp!

I was looking at my grandmothers little common book this morning and found she had written down a quote from Lao Tzu: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  All these years later I find myself studying Taoist philosophy.  I keep a daily journal as well.  My need to write things down I got from her.

My grandfather didn't keep a journal that I know of.  I have wonderful memories of him and I do have his camera and a lot of family treasures he left me. He patiently allowed me to work in the garden with him and taught me how to nurture plants and how not to drown them with too much water.  He built my tree house with me and didn't mention when my nails went in crooked and bent.  There was always a piece of hard candy in his pocket to reward my childish efforts.

Each of my grandparents played a huge role in shaping the woman I became and for that I will always be truly grateful.

Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends — and hardly ever our own grown children. ~Ruth Goode