Gathering Memories

A goodly number of my favorite memories are set during  this time of year.

That may be because this is when I've been able spend the most time with my family.
There was a time, when we lived several states away, when we made an annual pilgrimage at Thanksgiving to visit my folks.

In travel to and from visits with them I have seen some of the prettiest sights.

One year, on our way up the Indian Nation Turnpike a flock of turkeys flew across the road in front of us. It set the stage for our Thanksgiving. On the way home that same trip,  it began to snow the biggest flakes I've ever seen in just about that same spot. The stage was set again, we decided. This time it was for Christmas.

Last week there was a hawk sitting in the same spot as I drove to and from work. It made me think immediately of my mother-in-law, who died in 2002 and whom I still miss very much, When my eldest child was born and was in the  NICU the drives to and from the hospital tended to be pretty quiet.

Perhaps to break the silence and certainly to offer some comfort to a young, scared new mother she would say, "look for the hawk." She owned that most days she was able to spot a hawk near the same stretch of road either coming or going. Sometimes, she said, she spotted the hawk, which she was certain was the exact same one at each spotting, both coming and going. Those days, she told me, were when she was able to muster the most courage.

Last week my baby daughter, who is the only other granddaughter of my inlaws received an award. At the luncheon we attended on her behalf, buttermilk pie was served for desert. I immediately thought, again, of my mother-in-law. She would have much preferred  blackberries to the raspberries garnishing the pie, still, having just told my daughter how proud her paternal grandparents would be of her, that pie harkened me back to happy times with them.
For me, it really is the small things that seem to bring me the most pleasure. Snow and birds and pie, among them. They are big deals to my mind and my memory.