Upwind from Change.

My Grandparents were instrumental in my childhood. Very much a part of who I am today.

My Grandfather...

My work ethics I learned from him. Wanna know how he taught me? Picking up sticks. Yep... sticks. And since he lived in East Texas - the land of trees - this was pretty much a never ending job. LOL It was our job (I have 2 brothers). Now – just so you don’t think he was horrible – we got to ride around in a trailer behind his lawn tractor... he liked to pop wheelies... we liked for him to pop wheelies. LOLOL

He taught me patience – and to just work at it until it was done. And he taught me that even though I was working, it didn’t have to be mundane – there were so many ways to make it fun. Example: stick fights with your little brother – you would have thought we were “masters of the sword”. Did I mention that he popped wheelies? I mean – c’mon – how fun is THAT?!!? I used to love tagging along behind my Grandfather... we never did anything fast – always ALWAYS he practiced great patience. But each and every time we got whatever we were doing done. And it was done right. And when it was done we played in his toy shed (yep – a whole ENTIRE shed dedicated to toys) or we went fishing – sometimes just a boat ride - or we would stick our tongues out at the horse in the pasture... and laugh when we figured out that we had in turn taught the horse to stick his tongue out back at us.

My Grandmother...

I don’t even know where to start here. She taught me how to sew. She taught me how to do laundry. She taught me how to crochet, she allowed me to have my nose buried in a book as many hours of the day as I could – she listened to me pick away on her piano and miss all of the notes. She taught me how to stand my ground and know when to let the little things go – how to love – how to always have time for a coffee break just to chat - how to approach life with a grin – how to always have faith - how to always be kind and pure of heart. She REALLY tried to teach me how to cook. The sewing and laundry I have down pat... the cooking? I’m pretty sure I was out popping wheelies on the lawn tractor during those lessons. And... the laundry thing could be questionable. Luckily for me I like pink.

Between the two of them I learned about change. They were like two solid rocks when I was growing up - two lighthouses if you will. They were always there – watching their children change, watching their grand-children change – watching the world change. And I know now that their world changed – a lot, yet you never saw them fazed by it. I’m sure they were, but seriously – you would not have ever guessed it. From big things like life to little things like setting out for a day at the grocery store – but not ever making it there because there were too many garage sales on the way. LOL I wouldn’t be human if I said that I’m not at least a little bit skeert of change. I am – professional and personal change, physical and mental change – life. However, luckily for me, I am just flighty enough to not realize it’s happening until after the fact and I usually have a “huh” moment when I realize things are drastically different. I’m just cool like that. Change is funny... sometimes you can’t help but notice it, sometimes you just don’t notice it at all. In high school I moved from one school to another one 7 miles down the road – I was used to changing schools because I would switch between Texas and Florida, but for some reason the whole 7 mile thing was scary-er. The summer before making that change I was out riding bikes with my Grandmother. Because we were in East Texas there was a whole lotta loggin’ going on. Big pine tree forests going down right and left, the smell of burned grass and stumps – everywhere. As we rode along I asked her if it bothered her – the trees going down, big logging trucks in and out, fires and blackened ground. She looked at me and said, “it did in the beginning, but then I noticed that the next year they would plant new trees to replace what they took. I like to watch them grow and think about the forest they will become.” A couple of years later my Grandparents came to my house for my graduation. There were moving boxes everywhere, my Mom was moving into town and my little brother and I were going to Florida. It was crazy – scary. We were all changing. The morning of my graduation my Grandfather was sitting at the dining table reading the paper and drinking his “shot” of coffee, I was sitting there eating a bowl of cereal and he just looked at me and said, “You should see the trees growing around the corner from my house. They are getting bigger and bigger every day – a lot of new growth - changing every day." And then I think he found a garage sale ad because he was up and running.  LOL  I think the chair did a wheelie.

This is my new street sign. LOLOL Despite the fact that the “for sale” sign for this piece of land went missing a few couple of times (I know nuttin’), the land still sold at the end of my gravel road. A couple of weeks ago I rounded the corner on my way home just to come to a screeching halt and it went through my mind, “dang... really? A house? So close to mine? And a Port-A-Potty? I don’t want new neighbors!” and this picture was taken because I’m fairly sure I was going to rant and rave about port-a-pottys and building up the pasture land. But, between then and right now something changed. I realized that porta-a-pottys happen and I just need to make the best of this change. And, it’s not like this is right next door... there is some pasture separating us.

And why wouldn’t someone want to live by me? I’m great fun – I can drive a mean go-cart, there’s nothing better than the sound of a tractor engine at 5am, I don’t mind sharing my deer and field mice – you NEVER know what you will see if you look in my front yard... I have had show booths staged in the front pasture for goodness sake – bon fires, house fires, dogs that howl at nothing (one that sounds like a dieing walrus)... you name it I’m usually the cause of it. Always something different, always changing here in my neck o’ the woods. If you are reading this and you are my new neighbor I want to welcome you! What it is about your port-a-potty that makes me think long and hard about my Grandparents and change, I don’t know.

I’m just glad I’m upwind from THIS change. LOLOLOL

Comin' to you LIVE from a fresh-smellin' single-wide... hee-hee

;-)  Robelyn