What Mementos Are Precious To You?

If you’re like me, you—consciously or not—imbue your decorating, your cooking, and even your gardening with objects, recipes, and plants you associate with friends and family. Stephen Orr, Editor in Chief of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

When I was polishing up the manuscript for my soon-to-be-published historical fiction, The Bootmaker’s Wife, I considered the plight of the pioneer housewife as she decided on the few things she would pack in her trunk and wedge into her covered wagon. 

Over the years, what have you taken from home to home? In my gardening days, I always planted a Peace Rose because my first bush was given to me by my grandmother on my birthday (the variety was introduced the year of my birth). The walnut, cane-backed rocker that I was rocked in as a baby sits in my bedroom along with my dad’s walnut chest made from wood taken from the first Nebraska homestead. The ring that was my mother’s and grandmother’s is always on my hand. The angel that sat atop my first birthday cake is missing a hand but is still on display. My wooden rolling pin was my mother’s.

Mementos from the past grow more precious as I age. They are a conduit for intense feelings of love and connection. 

Affirmation: I cherish the mementos of my life.

Coaching questions: Are you a person who goes overboard when it comes to hanging on to mementos? What would you leave behind and what would you take if you were about to embark on a journey in a covered wagon? What do you cherish from your past? Why?

Photo by Morgane Le Breton on Unsplash