Five Good Memories

  As my mom's dementia grows worse, I find myself thinking a lot about my childhood. I started this post months ago, but never finished...in fact this is only half... my other five memories will have to be a post for another time. I haven't been doing much blogging lately, so I thought this post would be a good way to let you know what is occupying my time and my thoughts.

  It seems to be human nature to remember negative experiences and feelings more than the positive.  I know I have some pretty negative memories from my childhood...being blamed for things that my younger siblings did, or worse, being blamed when one of them got hurt. My dislike for card games and board games stems from negative experiences playing games with my brothers. My fear of water comes from almost drowning as a child. My fear of snakes comes from my mom screaming whenever she came across a snake in the garden. My dislike for public speaking comes from being embarrassed in grade 5....and I could go on and on. 

   So many of our fears and dislikes are rooted in something that happened to us as children. The ones I've listed are pretty minor. I could talk about more painful, destructive memories but that isn't my purpose today. What I want to do is focus on the positive. So, I decided to just sit down and write a list of memories from my childhood....I wrote them as they came to me...no particular order, just the positive thoughts that came when I thought about my childhood. Of course, negative memories came too, often mixed in with the good, but I purposely ignored them! Some of these memories may seem small and inconsequential, but sometimes it's the little things that make the difference, and perhaps have a lasting impact on life.

I realized as I went through this list that I've written about some of these topics before, so I've linked to these other posts.

So, here are my Five Good Memories:

1. Going to Jacksons Lake in the summer time. We'd look forward to Dad getting home from work, so we could bug him to take us, or in later years, let us borrow the car! Yes, I have a fear of going under water, but I still loved going to the lake!

2. Sunday drives with Mom and Dad...sometimes to the gardens in Morden, or to Mount Nebo, near Miami, MB, where Dad grew up. I'm not sure why these are good memories, other than that they broke up the monotony of everyday life out in the boonies! I remember one time, I wasn't able to climb the hill with the other kids, because I forgot to put shoes on before leaving home, and there were a lot of cactus growing in the area.

Mount Nebo

Later, when I had kids of my own, we took them to Mount Nebo, and they loved it too. 

3. Playing with our dogs and puppies. We always had at least one dog. The first was Yip. She was black, brown and white, if I remember correctly...maybe a border collie mix. Then Dad brought home Heppy, a small, ivory coloured terrier of some type. And thanks to Jack dog down the road, we often had puppies. The last three dogs we had when I was at home were Teddy, Big Pup, and Sandy. I guess we ran out of puppy names to end up with 'Big Pup' Of course there was also a Little Pup at one time too!

Victoria, Teddy, Me, Big Pup, Sandy, and Jamie

4. Walking.....on sandy roads that burned my feet so much that I'd try to stay in the shady spots; along railway tracks and gravel roads looking for shiny stones; on cool, damp, freshly graded roads...flattening the tire tracks; out to frozen ponds in the field to skate on; down the road to the Collie Hills to play in the spruce trees, or to slide down the steep hills in winter; out to the west bush to pick nanny berries, down the south road, or across to 'Ron's bush' to pick choke cherries...yes, walking was a big part of my childhood! 

Collie Hills

5. Our 'world'.... The garden...making a meal just wandering around...pulling up a carrot, picking some peas, and then raspberries for desert! And the flowers...when I was little..zinnias, cosmos, carnations, snow on the mountain, bachelor's buttons, portulaca (especially the mound in Auntie Bene's garden) oh, and scarlet runner beans at Auntie Bene's place, and her apple orchard! ...and my very own rock garden with a cement bird bath that I made myself. And all the wildflowers...blue bells, crocus, cowslips, buttercups, tiger lilies, lady slippers...

And trees...climbing trees, making houses in the center of the  'big willows', swings hung from trees...and especially the sideways tree...even though I was knocked unconscious when I fell out of it!

The sideways tree

 I could go on, but I'll stop there! I really was blessed with wonderful parents, and had a good childhood...not perfect or without difficulties, but I'd rather remember the good times...wouldn't you?

 If anyone out there decides to make their own list of good memories let me know. It really is a great exercise.

 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Philippians 1:3