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| Memory Tree |
One of my favorite things to do each holiday season is put up the Christmas tree (or Hanukkah Bush, Solstice Plant or Saturnalia Evergreen -- your choice). But since becoming an adult, I've always felt the tree should be more than a representation of the commercial buying season, which it seems to have become. A Christmas Tree is a wonderful way to honor the life you've lived, and the blessings you've been given. So, beginning at about 21 years of age, I started collecting ornaments which represented my life, as it happened.
At age 52, I now have a tree full of memories, so much so that there is little room for regular glass-ball ornaments, although I do make sure there are a few of those up.
I have ornaments from my salad days in my 20's when I was so broke I used molds and modeling clay to make my own ornaments. Some are mementoes from trips we've taken. Others are symbolic, representing life occasions I've honored through a purchased ornament, their true meaning known only to me. And as the years have gone by and my family has grown, now Big Ag and the kids have their own memory ornaments they add, too.
I probably spent just a few dollars a year on Christmas ornaments, usually bought on the fly whenever I saw something that had meaning to me, but the investment has paid off in a memory tree. It's a tree that honors my journey through life both with and without Big Ag and the kids, and every time I hang up a keepsake I remember something or someone that was once part of my life.
In that way, I feel I really do keep the spirit of Christmas, by remembering how blessed I have been throughout this life of mine, even when I didn't necessarily recognize it.
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| Handmade ones from the lean times... |
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| Ones that are symbolic of events in my life... |
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| And some commemorating shared family times. |
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| A treeful of memories. |
