THEME FRIDAYS
This week is Annie’s turn for theme picking and i have to say that when she told me what she chose, and how she chose it, i really liked it. It is keeping. Doesn’t that just beg to be written? Cry out with ideas? i thought so, too.
keeping
No, not the kind involving fingers folded against palms. Nor of the bending arm, drawing something or someone to one’s breast. It is not the type to be placed in a cedar chest or hidden in an underwear drawer. It is not for wrapping or sealing up. It is not physically material, physically tangible, handled, though physical manifestations of it occur like tears or smiling, nightmares or long sighs.
I’m talking about the type one holds in the heart of being, held by the abstract idea of memory. This kind is held in the odor of rising dough- sweat and yeasty- and calls forth a picture in the mind of a mother, bent over a bowl of raw Masa Sovada, offering a pinch to…
I’m talking about how a certain breeze on a certain kind of day- a day unreal and bright, dry and smelling of reddening leaves- carries one to Hallowe’en, 1989, and a gypsy costume, a party and a boy of dreams…
Talking about a movie that is watched every time it is aired because it is a movie sisters watched over and over again until they could speak the lines as if they’d created them, it is time that was spent together…
The way a song unearths happier times or a particular hand of rummy played with daughters late on a Friday night leads to the story of how the game was taught by a clean shaven father, four years before his death, unearths the sorrow of that….
It’s what puts one foot in front of the other, whether they are aching or light. It is what links one to yesterdays and tomorrows. It is what leads one to embrace or turn away.
I’m talking the important things, precious, holy, terrible, mundane, extraordinary- the things keeping one one, you you. Me me. Like the bones, the blood, humor and passion, like what makes us sorrowful and hopeful.
What is kept. What is worth keeping. It is everywhere, is within and always with.
And see here for Annie’s keepsakes…
(copyright 2008 ) c A Hughes
09.12.08
Oh C.
This is so beautiful, such beauty,
To keep within.
Thank you
Di
Thank you, Di. Knowing you to be very spiritual and interested in the spirits of people, i appreciate your appreciation greatly!
These keeping things are always with us.
Some wonderful, some sad.
Some known and held onto fiercely.
And others buried so deep, we are not aware we’ve kept them.
All these, we are keeping and using when dealing with one another, our selves.
i love the thought of that!
~c
Wow chica,
That is gorgeous – true, real, honest, straight from the heart. You have managed to name the intangibles that define us. Beautiful. I guess this theme was pretty good, eh?
Love
Annie
You done good, Annie!
i know we tend to whine about themes initially, but we always manage to put forth magical writing, i think.
But this week’s theme just grabbed me and shook me! i could not complain at all! Hee hee!
i could’ve written and written and written more about ‘keeping’. Thinking about it, i became aware of how much keeping is a part of life. What we keep, what we let go, as your post today also explores, is woven throughout our choices, reactions, likes and dislikes. Physical, emotional, mental keeping all affect the people we are so subtly. i’d never thought about it much until i had to for this theme!
So thank you, Magic Finger of Annie, for pointing out the best theme evah!
And thank you, Annie, for reading, support and friendship.
~c
I think this is the best one yet. Not only did I feel your memories but I felt my own. Your words brought them out. There was so much feeling in this one. So many different kinds of feelings. I really loved it. You both did a great job on this one.
Thank you so much, Noni.
i believe this was the first time i actually, genuinely, was satisfied with what i wrote for a Theme Friday!
i am glad that it had such an affect.
i hope it brought to your mind good memories…
~c
You reminded me so beautifully of all that “keeping” is. Especially now that my siblings and I are the elders in the family.
Thank you, Pied Type.
i’m glad that you enjoyed it.
~c
Sigh … ah gosh that made me so enjoy the thought of keeping … a wonderful and happy view of how keeping stays with me, defines me, is me. Thank you.
Thank you, Gerry!
What an encouraging compliment.
~c
A quotation for you, c: “Do we all have a bit or piece of something that we instinctively cast back on when the heart wants to break upon itself and causes us to say, ‘Oh yes, but there was this,’ or ‘Oh yes, but there was that,’ and so we go on?” Phyllis Theroux as quoted in Last Child in the Woods (p 96). A wonderful book for you to read, if you are interested.
i am interested and will keep my eye out for it, thank you.
And that quote- she said what i wanted to say so eloquently and succinctly.
i hope one day, i will be as skillful.
~c
how wonderful!
so beautiful.
if i could take a picture of your description of what we keep, i’d make millions.
Oh stop…
You capture kept with skill and agility.
Your millions are on the way.
~c
Aww!!
Just read this again C and the comments and your comments to the comments.
I love this Theme. Keeping.
Hope you are keeping well.
Smiles
Di