Did you know that April is national poetry month? I had no idea there was even such a thing. I have never really enjoyed poetry, until recently, when I realized it is a way for me to dig into my grandmother’s heart and seek her wisdom.
For years my grandmother’s books of poetry have sat on my shelf, only being opened periodically to be quickly skimmed and then put back to collect dust.
However, I am in a time of my life where I long to see her face and sit around her large round kitchen table, eat Hӓagen-Dazs ice cream drizzled with her famous hot fudge and ask her advice about life.
I was too young and too self-absorbed to ask her the “life questions,” when I had the chance. And now that I am wife and a mom, I wish I could go to her and ask her about how to be a godly wife, a godly mom, and a godly friend.
A few weeks back I opened up Sitting Next to My Laughing Fire, a collection of her poems, only to read words my heart needed to hear, and they were her words. As I flipped from page to page, it was almost as each poem was speaking right to me from her pen to my heart.
I read these words and could feel a little tugging – a stirring – inside of myself, as if she were saying this poem should be my continuous prayer as a wife. Even after being married 8 years and hopefully 50 more to come, I will pray that I am all he ever dreamed.
I am beyond blessed to have my grandmother’s words to cherish, and share, and pass on to those who will never know her, but will know a little piece of the godly woman, wife, mother, and friend she was. A little of her lives on in each of her poems and in each life of which she was a part.
You can own your own copies of this and many other writings as several of my grandmother’s collections of poetry are available for sale in Ruth’s Attic Bookstore.