While on a walk this evening I talked to my dad...and my mom...and her mom too. I filled them in on what was happening in our life. I let them know how much I miss them. I asked them for guidance. I thought about their lives and how they got so much right, how they did so well despite hardships that came their way. I reflected on my own life as my family enters another time of change: getting out of the house to hybrid school, sending my youngest to the middle school hallways for the first time and watching our oldest graduate high school in a matter of weeks. So much is coming our way and the pace of life post-covid feels exciting and overwhelming. It’s comforting to me to think of them walking alongside me, and us.
When I got home and decided to have a bowl of cereal. I rarely eat cereal, like almost never, but for some reason it sounded good. No one else was around, the kitchen was clean and quiet. I poured a bowl and sat at the counter. I leaned over to read the news while I ate and was suddenly struck by an image of my dad.
My dad often came home for his lunch break. He ate a heaping bowl of cereal with sliced bananas while he read the newspaper. After this lunch he took a 30 minute power nap before returning to his office to see his afternoon patients. He continued this lunch routine into retirement. When visiting a couple of years ago, I walked into the kitchen and saw him sitting in the sunroom, hunched over his bowl of cereal, reading. I looked at him and wanted to remember it, so I snapped a picture.
Tonight after my cereal I went looking for the picture and am so glad that I found it (lots of scrolling!). I studied the picture and remembered. I wonder maybe he had similar thoughts about his life. Maybe he had similar conversations with his parents and with my mom. Maybe I’m more like him than I think.
Last night, my teenage son had a huge helping of cereal for his post-dinner snack. I had remembered, as a kid, doing the same. Then, here you are, talking of cereal and connections.
ReplyDeleteKevin
This is beautiful, Bitsy. An everyday item has such significance because of the memories we attach to it and then the tradition continues. =)
ReplyDeleteI’m so glad you found the photo. Your title is so simple but we all have emotional connections to cereal. I like how you use it as a way to explore all these passage-ways of memory and connection in families.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet slice! Routines, even those not our own, become so imprinted on us. I love the connection you were able to make here.
ReplyDeleteAren't the routines we get into interesting? I wonder how this bowl of cereal with the news capped off with a nap started. So much change on your horizon, and yet a moment of reflection.
ReplyDeleteOh what a great photo! And yes as we age we seem to take on the some of the habits of our parents. I remember well thinking oh my gosh I sound like my mother! Thanks for sharing this moment in time!
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