I fight, like many people, a never-ending battle of paper and clutter in my house. I go through things, I toss things, save a few, but never seem to catch up. I guess I am not ruthless enough, especially when it comes to throwing away stuff the kids made. I don't think I will ever stop enjoying looking at that, so I am somewhat resigned to always living with stacks and stacks of crayon scribbles, macaroni wreaths, and schoolwork with amusing spelling mistakes until I am buried with it all someday.
But today as I was once again weeding, saving, and tossing, I came across some art from someone else: my mom. She loves to send us "care packages" from Wisconsin. You never know what might be in them, from carefully-clipped coupons to Wall Street Journal articles with passages neatly underlined for emphasis to bars of soap to candy to a hippie candle I had in my room in 1974. In one of those care packages from a few years ago, there was this: a photocopy of a picture I had taken of my daughter when she was two years old, but garnished with real ruby-red leaves gathered from Mom's yard, pressed flat, and then delicately glued on to form a lovely dress. I imagine my mom there in her house, 2000 miles away sitting at her desk, creating a "Princess Of The Petals."
Of all the things I could bring you today, I don't think anything would be lovelier than this, a humble little piece of homemade art from a Grandma who loves her granddaughter very much.
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman