Throughout our relationships with people, we hold onto little things. A movie stub from seeing a movie you both loved, pictures, or a special birthday card are just some of the small keepsakes we hold onto. When our loved one dies, we tend to put these items all in one place and tuck it away. Our heart sometimes can’t bear to look at them day to day. So, our beloved treasures sit there and wait until the day comes that you are ready to take a peek. As you could imagine, with all of my losses, I have quite a few of these items put away for me to look at on a rainy day.
This week, I was trying to tackle some cleaning during time off work, and I came across one of my stashes of memories. Each time I come across gifts from my past I make a decision about what to do with the treasures. Sometimes I decide to pass them on to someone else, a family member or just to sell it for someone who would use it more than I do. Sometimes I decide to put them in a spot of honor in my home and use it more often. Sometimes I choose to take a peek and put my keepsakes back where they were stored because the memories are still too painful. One treasure I found this week was my charm bracelet from my mom. She started collecting charms for me at the end of the fifth grade and she added some charms here and there until I graduated from high school. I pulled it out and started to take a look and remember some of the events we commemorated onto this bracelet.
On this bracelet, the picture that you can see in my post, you will find things like a carousel charm and a carousel horse charm. My mom and I had a deep love for carousels and they are an iconic image for me of my childhood. I still love riding them and there is something calming about them to me. Next on my bracelet, there is a Big Ben charm. Mom got me this one after our trip to London, the best trip the two of us ever took. Although it was a school trip, she and I still had time to spend time on our own and enjoy different parts of London away from our group. Another charm is of a Cinderella carriage, because Cinderella is one of my favorite Disney princesses. There are many charms of graduation years: 2002 when I graduated from 5th grade, 2005 when I left middle school, and 2009 when I graduated from high school. She honored each occasion with a new charm so I could keep remembering how hard I had worked. I love this bracelet, but it in its time in the box, it had gotten a little tarnished. So what do I do with it?
My Mother-in-Law came over that evening and I decided to ask her to give it to my Father-in-Law to clean it and add the three charms that had not yet been put on the bracelet. The next day, she brought it back shiny and new looking with my other charms attached and the day after that, I wore it to work. I had decided to make this a part of my normal jewelry rotation. On Thursday when I wore it, I was able to look down throughout the day and remember the different memories attached to my wrist and I would smile.
What are some of the treasures that you hold dear from your loved ones? What have you decided to do with them?