These Chains are made for walkin'

In the early 90's my mom gave me a pair of "boot chains" so I could walk safely during Minnesota's ice season.  Well, I thanked her and then promptly put them a way with a well really, when will I EVER use these attitude, after all I, I was only in my 40's still prancing around in stylish shoes blessed with healthy joints and an amazing sense of balance. And I remembered that when I was growing up we put chains on car tires so we could drive out of our farm driveway onto the gravel roads and then paved road to town. In the 70's the tire chains were replaced with studded tires which were truly labor saving.  You just put them on at the start of winter and took them off in the spring.

Well worked well for the car owner.  They saved time for people driving on roads with snow ruts or ice, but the studs also tore up the roads destroying them at an alarming rate.  My memory says that the next thing we did was outlaw studded tires and "put down sand" instead.  Next came salt and chemicals.  Well that is true today - we use more sale and chemicals and we use sand on Minnesota roads.

This winter is my "boot chains winter!" My new knee healing and getting stronger with each day - and my absolute desire NOT TO FALL, I remembered "mom's chains" went to the basement to the antique glass front cupboard and took out the plastic bag with shoe chains mom gave me now more than 20 years ago.  They were right where I put them along with other precious things from mom, gramma and my aunts.   

Just like the tire chains, I put them on my boots that day and will keep them on my winter boots until there is no risk of ice on any surface this season!  I think of mom every time I put them on and thank her for keeping me safe. 

She left this life on January 1, 1998 but she keeps me on track in surprising ways and is keeping me safe this winter!  I did not even have to go outside on icy sidewalks to search out boot chains when the ice hit and then pay much more than she paid for them 20 years ago.  THANKS MOM, another gife that keeps on giving!   

January 7, 2012 - A hike at Fort Snelling State Park

Memorial to 38 Dakota hanged 1862 at Mankao

I had such grand plans for today and even recorded my "TTDT" (things to do today) list in my "stickies" file on my computer.  It is now 1:09 p.m. - I am down to #4 really working hard to finish the list I was so enthusiastic about at 7:30 this morning.

Again I find myself in that place of remembering what a Saturday was like for my Gramma Elsie.  Each week on a "set day" she went to the beauty shop to get her hair set and nails done (always bright bright bright red).  At the time that did not seem particularly amazing to me but today it borders on the astonishing!  She was a busy busy woman, farm wife, mother, daughter-in-law, grandmother, friend, neighbor and hostess; seamstress, cook, baker, gardener, harvester, care-giver of people and care taker of the root cellar and all she canned and she wrote numerous letters to her sisters and friends weekly!

How did she EVER have the energy?  She had few energy saving devices at her disposal.  The first time I wrote about my experience of her seemingly boundless energy, the article was published under the title "High-heeled on the Farm."  Yup, she did it all wearing a corset, nylon stockings and high heeled shoes (with "rubbers" to the garden)!

Today, I am aware that she 1) knew who she was 2) took very good care of herself 3) was active and an integral part of her family, neighborhood, church, school board, township board communities 4) used her voice rather than held it.

On my TTDT list is a walk in Fort Snelling State Park - at this moment i have co convince myself to get off the sofa and GO DO IT!  The picture above is what will get me moving!  This year the State of Minnesota will commemorate the 150 years since the hanging of the 38 Dakota at Fort Snelling.  I will park my car and begin my hike less than 40 feet from the memorial and consider my walk a time to take care of myself, heal my body and remember in prayer that we humans are truly mercurial, often brutal and often caring and just and loving.

I will be following activities including the opening of an exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society that will look back "with eyes wide open" to the atrocities and shed new light on them.

January 1, 2012 HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANKS MOM

This year I took vacation for the 12 Days of Christmas.  It has been grand to wake when my body is rested, have guests over for a lovely lazy brunch or dinner, visit friends,  fall asleep reading a book in the middle of the afternoon and walk at Ft. Snelling State Park.

Santa and Mrs Claus 1997

The first of the year, every year for the past fourteen reminds me of my mom.  As I have said far too often she left this life without my permission!  We celebrated Christmas 1997 on the last Saturday of December.  When all the gifts under the tree were gone, everyone thought the gift giving was over.  It was then that mom brought out a bag of wrapped gifts and with the biggest smile passed them one by one to each of us.  My gift was figurines of Santa and Mrs Claus.  She didn't say much that day but she smiled and she smiled. Perhaps the best part of her smile was that she managed - from her home at Pine Haven Nursing Home to purchase from a catalog and have the gifts sent to her there - then wrapped them and put our names on the right gift for each one of us.

The next day she was taken by ambulance to St. Marys Hospital, Rochester and then transferred to the respiratory intensive care unit where she died less than a week later - I was blessed to be with her when she breathed her last earthly breath.  And I miss her SO much!  That is not to say we got along all the time or even much of the time.  Truth be told the first 38 years of my life we "enjoyed" a more than tense relationship.  Gratefully, all that began changing when I invited mom to have lunch one day at the Henry Wellington restaurant in downtown Rochester.  I miss her immensely - and she is ever-so-close!

There are two things that are always present in my home 1) Santa and Mrs. Claus move around the living room and 2) and the ceramic Christmas Tree mom made while she resided at Pine Haven, it moves from place to place in my loft.  

What doesn't move around is the ways she is "in me,"  the ways she shows up in the most unexpected ways "in my ear" to encourage or challenge or laugh or question ... ...

So on the anniversary of your leaving this life and entering the next ... love and hugz Mom ... and thanks too!