31 Letters Literacy Project: Day 28 – “It’s About Time”

Day 28 of our 31 Letters Literacy Project is about TIME.

Today’s letter is inspired by a poem we bumped into on Day 28 of 365 Days of Literacy for Kids… a wonderful little poem and message that tells us of the passage of TIME:

WINDOW by Czeslaw Milosz

I looked out the window at dawn and saw a young apple tree
translucent in brightness.

And when I looked out at dawn once again, an apple tree laden with
fruit stood there.

Many years had probably gone by but I remember nothing of what
happened in my sleep.

How many times have we wondered where TIME went… usually as we’re making plans for, or anticipating, the NEXT thing in our lives.  Stop today.  Stop for 5 minutes.  Stop long enough to write a letter to your children or grandchildren or a special child in your life.  Write about a TIME in your life that you cherished… that you still cherish.  Combine your memories and your words with their delight in your sharing!  

———————————-

Here is my letter about TIME to my grandchildren today:

March 28, 2011

Hi, my little darlings! It seems that just yesterday it was March 1st and our 31 Letters Project began.  Now it’s March 28th.  Where did the days go!?

All kinds of things happened in March.  The first day of Spring arrived.  We saw a Supermoon in the sky.  We had record-breaking days of almost-summer-weather and we even had a bit of a snowfall, too!  You all grew a little more and learned a little more.

TIME has a most wonderful way of coming… and of going.  It’s important for us to pay close attention to TIME and to enjoy and embrace each and every moment.  Even the quiet, tip-toe kinds of moments… like enjoying the buds on the trees awakening and peeking out just about now!

I LOVE gardening.  I love planting things.  I love colors in my gardens.  I love it when I see all my new little buds in the Spring.  I love when people enjoy the things I’ve planted.  I think I inherited this feeling from my grandparents.  Remember I told you all about my grandparents’ farm in Michigan and the wonderful memories I have?  Yes, that’s where I got my love of the earth and what it brings to us!

This year, I want to have blueberries, raspberries and strawberries in my back yard.  I remember when we lived in Bristol… and you, Taylor and Maddie, would come with me to the back yard and pick blueberries and raspberries right off our bushes.  Then we’d bring them into the house, rinse them off and EAT them!  You 2 LOVED that!  It’s the most fun ever to see someone so delighted with your own gardens. To all the boys, by the way… you were too small or not even born yet to do this picking thing in the back yard!

This year, I’m going to need each of you to help with the planting, the picking and the EATING!

My parents weren’t big gardeners.  My Dad enjoyed mowing our lawn (I have stories about that!), and my Mom planted flowers each year… but they didn’t LOVE it like I do.  I think this is why I fell so in love with a bush that my Mom and Dad picked out one year and planted in our back yard just for me.

It was a Rose of Sharon bush.  I’ve looked everywhere, through all of my old photo albums, to find a picture of that beautiful, meaningful Rose of Sharon.  I haven’t found one, but I’m still looking.  This is what a Rose of Sharon flower looks like:

My Dad planted my Rose of Sharon in our back yard, and each Spring and Summer I would fall in love with it all over again.  That Rose of Sharon meant the world to me because of the love it came with, because I watched it grow, and because it said my name. That Rose of Sharon made me stop and think of TIME…

Sometimes I wish I had dug up that Rose of Sharon and taken it with me when my Dad died and my Mom sold that house with the Rose of Sharon in the back yard.  But most times I remember the TIME my Mom and Dad picked it out, brought it home… and my Dad planted it.  I still feel the love of my Mom and Dad with that Rose of Sharon gift, and I hope that another girl or woman or person felt the same magical feeling of TIME each time those beautiful flowers came out to play!

You know, as I’m sitting here thinking… I’m wondering why I don’t have a Rose of Sharon in my gardens!  I have forsythia, lilacs, winterberries, hydrangeas, hollies, lavender, dogwoods, hostas, day lilies.  I have a rose garden on our rocky wall and last Fall Grandpa/Pop-up and I planted 100 tulips in our front yard.  We’ve been watching them peek through…

And we have 5 beautiful pear trees in our back yard, too… that we rescued a few years ago as straggly little twigs and now are strong and fine and ready to bloom again after a long, cold winter:

But my great wish for this Spring is for you to come plant a Rose of Sharon with me.  Then it will be as if TIME stood still… !

Take a walk out to your back yard today and look at the lovely blooms just waiting to burst through.  Do this each day if you can.  Mother Nature has a wonderful way of capturing TIME for us in little moments.  It’s a great, great gift.  All we have to do is take the TIME to enjoy!

Love forever and ever,

Grandma Couto

——————————

Mail Tidbit of the Day: In 1957, Dr. Maurice Levy, an electronics scientist from Canada, invented an automatic postal sorter that handled almost 200,000 letters per hour.






About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

Sign Up To The Ultimate Style Newsletter for Moms

Categories

ShopStyle “List” Of all Things I Like and Blog About

Pinterest