Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Old/New/Timeless

I’m not the only one getting older. My microwave broke last night. It isn’t terminally broken, just blew a fuse, but it stopped in the middle of brewing tea. It’s so hot (over 100 most every day) that I dislike using the oven just for warming. I’m not crazy about warming 6 bites of food in individual pans on the range, either, so cold food will do til Muffin fixes a fuse.

My serger is now 20 years old too. Twenty years since my Pickle died. I bought the serger as sort of a memorial to her. She taught me lots of handwork and loved to see the things I sewed for the girls when they were little. Kak was only three when she died, but remembers her. When I was about three, I was in a bad mood at her house one day and she called me a Sour Puss. I replied that she was a Sour Pickle. The name stuck, but was abbreviated. Of her 14 grandchildren I was the only one who called her Pickle. As an adult I cross stitched and embroidered pickles on various items—book covers and pillows among them. All of those came back to me after she died. I guess these memories are tickling my brain tonight because I have been sewing for a couple of days and the serger is generally sewing well, but is terribly outdated and much more difficult to use than the newer ones.

Scooter is eleven now. His mother, Muzzy, died when she was 12, or just a few days before that. I still think of Scooter as a puppy. Muzzy’s first litter of Shelties was on May 1, 1996. One day later, I went on a Walk to Emmaus. Two days later was the high school prom. I essentially deserted my daughters on prom night at their insistence. I had no idea how much they loved me to allow me to spend such a frivolous weekend full of love poured out by the Body of Christ. It seems like yesterday that Scooter was a little puppy, Muzzy was a new mom, Boo was graduating, Joy was going off to cheerleading camp, and CB and JB were getting married, but all of those events were between eleven and twelve years ago. Scooter is on meds for arthritis and liver function and that breaks my heart.

Our house is the second newest house on our block. Muffin designed it on the computer-in 1986. We moved into it in 1988. All manner of gadgets and attachments are in need of replacement or repair. Muffin replaced most of the fence not long ago. The living room carpet, which seems dirty all the time, is the “new” one. It’s six years old.

I find comfort in knowing that things aren’t really made to last. Relationships are. God calls Himself the I AM. He IS, WAS, and ever SHALL BE. As I learned so aptly and is forever implanted in my brain in 7th grade English: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, have, has, had, do, does, did, shall, will, should, would, may, might, must, can, could. Yep, that pretty well covers God—in English, as least. He is timeless.

No comments: