{i thought it was time to bring back the "manifesto monday" series after a summer full of such wonderful experiences. i'm excited to bring this little series back...i hope you are too.}
for the past week i've had a wonderful experience transcribing some of cj's grandpa's journals from his travels in the midwest during the 1930s--right at the moment the Great Depression was a reality for so many people. i love reading his daily entries about hitch-hiking from town to town, stopping for ice cream and root beer, helping people who were sick or emotionally tired, and sleeping under trees on warm summer nights.
one journal entry hit my heart and penetrated my entire soul. he had had a particularly long day, finding it almost impossible to find rides to where he needed to be...once he found the people he was looking for--people he intended to help and lift their burden--they fed him a marvelous chicken dinner and gave him a soft bed to sleep in. they had helped him and lifted his spirits. he sincerely wrote in the now-yellowed lines of his journal "thank god for such good people."
such good people.
yesterday as i had some time to sit and listen to some of my most favorite songs, i realized how much i will miss my piano when we move. we knew when we brought it home last fall it would not move on with us when the time came--it's just too heavy and bulky we thought. so i sat listening to simple melodies, and feeling how deeply i love to play them on my out-of-tune antique piano. i specifically could hear my broken piano playing the old 19th-century tune of "for the beauty of the earth." my heart broke. tears came.
simple melodies.
these two experiences brought up in me my favorite of all feelings: peace. peace that i do not have to be grand or complicated. peace that there is a wondrous beauty in being a simple woman with simple dreams that are grand enough. i found myself wishing simply to be in that category of "such good people."
this i believe.
for the past week i've had a wonderful experience transcribing some of cj's grandpa's journals from his travels in the midwest during the 1930s--right at the moment the Great Depression was a reality for so many people. i love reading his daily entries about hitch-hiking from town to town, stopping for ice cream and root beer, helping people who were sick or emotionally tired, and sleeping under trees on warm summer nights.
one journal entry hit my heart and penetrated my entire soul. he had had a particularly long day, finding it almost impossible to find rides to where he needed to be...once he found the people he was looking for--people he intended to help and lift their burden--they fed him a marvelous chicken dinner and gave him a soft bed to sleep in. they had helped him and lifted his spirits. he sincerely wrote in the now-yellowed lines of his journal "thank god for such good people."
such good people.
yesterday as i had some time to sit and listen to some of my most favorite songs, i realized how much i will miss my piano when we move. we knew when we brought it home last fall it would not move on with us when the time came--it's just too heavy and bulky we thought. so i sat listening to simple melodies, and feeling how deeply i love to play them on my out-of-tune antique piano. i specifically could hear my broken piano playing the old 19th-century tune of "for the beauty of the earth." my heart broke. tears came.
simple melodies.
these two experiences brought up in me my favorite of all feelings: peace. peace that i do not have to be grand or complicated. peace that there is a wondrous beauty in being a simple woman with simple dreams that are grand enough. i found myself wishing simply to be in that category of "such good people."
this i believe.
4 comments:
Love this manifesto.
Love that you have the treasure of those journals and the memories therein.
Love being just a "simple woman" as well.
this shot an arrow through my heart. i mourn for the loss of contact with "such good people" - they are rare and beautiful.
beautiful write.
This was absolutely beautiful. It touched my heart. Thank you.
so beautiful and what a special thing to have in your possesion ann marie, no better a person to transcribe such a journal. to get to know more about ceej family through such pieces of treasure.
i agree with everyone, these words that he wrote stuck to my heart in such a profound way, i would like to come across more of "such good people"
i believe that that ceej grandfather knows that he married on of those!
Ann marie i could not tellyou how the piano story has hit home as you know i have had a red piano, last year a pipe broke in my studio and dropped ten thousand gallons of water on it, it should have been in my home but how to convince anyone to move it for the thrid time was not possible, ater the flood i walked to it pressed a key and it played just good enough for me- it remains in my studio wher ei believe it will never leave in one piece.
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