Last weekend we picked up a few furniture items and a handful of boxes from my grandparents' estate. They are now all unpacked and staged for integration into our own household of belongings. As we look through them, some bring memories while others leave you surprised to know they were once owned by Grandma and Papa.
There weren't any hidden Ansel Adams originals, no priceless treasures that would let me retire and travel the world. But, there was value in each and every item...inherited value. These items all have a connection, and by virtue of being inherited...they have a special kind of value.
My husband and I used to frequent estate sales, but we always missed out on the special deals. We would get so caught up in looking into the lives of the people. Who were they, that these items were the leftover, unwanted remnants of their story? It always made us so sad to think there wasn't anybody in the family to cherish these personal things. One time we found about a dozen rounds of vacation slides spanning the globe.
As I look around my home, I sometimes wonder what will become of my things. We don't have any family to leave things to and I'm uncertain...will my tokens of life have any inherited value to anybody?
If you have some items in your home that have special stories behind them, either from an experience they represent or a story of where they came from or who they once belonged to...write that information down so it will increase the inherited value someday.
This oil lamp is something that awed me from as far back as I can remember anything. It drips oil so it looks like raindrops and I always thought it was the most amazing thing. Now, I have inherited it and treasure it deeply.
One More Thing...
Do you have something special that you inherited?
Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.
Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.
3 comments:
this is sort of funny--things left behind ARE very interesting and sometimes important to some and not to others. My son and husband went 'dumpster diving' at his Aunt's house when her kids went thru stuff. Jon found an unbroken ceramic deer head that is now on his door to his room. Steve was looking at old pictures and saw the same item in his Grandma's house on the wall! We know, as long as Jon's around our stuff will have a home (he is a retro pack rat!)...but it is thought provoking.
My mother has already passed on a few things even though she is still alive. She has given me the owl cookie jar we had when I was growing up and a milk pitcher that came to Oregon from Missouri in a covered wagon. Even though the family coming in the covered wagon had to leave most of their belongings on the side of the trail due to too much weight, the mother said the pitcher went or she would stay with it beside the trail. She served her family milk from it every day while walking all that way. It was not my family but the family of a very dear friend of my mother's.
FlowerPower is aka Claudia by the way
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