Skip to main content

Five Minute Friday: Roots

Lisa-Jo Baker (lisajobaker.com) hosts a weekly event on her blog called "Five Minute Friday". The rules are

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

So here's my first try at this. Today's topic was Roots.

Roots – I think about my grandparents who lived on a farm until my grandfather’s diabetes worsened and they moved to a town with a hospital nearby. My father still says he wished he could have kept that farm. I think of my grandmother who was a widow for 20 years. Every year she would stand over my PaPa’s grave, wishing she was with him.

I think of my parents, a product of those grandparents, how hard my father worked to put 2 girls through college without us having to take out a single loan. My mother who helped him with his moonlighting jobs by collating the thesis and dissertations that he printed at night. I hope that I make them proud.

Sometimes I’m afraid that those roots will end because I don’t have children. Who will carry on the memory of the farmhouse, the one that had the cat who ran away because I always pulled its tail and the chickens I gave pep talks to so that they’d lay more eggs.

That’s why I must write, to tell those stories, of hardworking parents across the generations who made me who I am today. So that their stories and my stories will live on in others, even if they aren’t related to me or my roots. I must put down my own roots and leave a legacy. These people were too good to be forgotten.

Comments

  1. Andrea, thank you for sharing about your history. It is so good to know where we came from! Visiting from FMF, but I scrolled on through a few of your October posts. Looks like you're on your way, and I hope you continue to enjoy your new blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post. Congrats on your first 5 minute friday and for writing for 31 days. Good luck with your new blog. I know what you mean about writing. There was a time I had that dream. Come by and see me if you have a chance.
    Have a Beautiful weekend.
    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sherry! I really like your FMF post - loved all the sides of roots that you looked at. Hope you have a beautiful weekend too!

      Delete
  3. Thank you for your post. I love what you wrote. It's close to what first popped into my head when I saw the prompt. Visiting from FMF!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you liked the post. I love the concept of your blog!

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can totally relate to this. Keep writing! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Minute Friday: Time

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ . This week's word is Time. Sometimes time feels like this, like we are in it. Standing inside it, watching life pass by. It is so easy to get stuck in a time - in our pain, in our hurt. We hear the ache tick away in our head like a giant clock. Time, instead, is a gift. More time with family, more time to accomplish goals, more time to see the world. When you are hurting, it seems like time takes forever. One day turns into another day, turns into another day. When we hate a job, the five days of time that make up a work week seem to go on forever. But those five days are also a gift. Because these days, a job is not a guarantee. I want to see time as gift, not as a chore. I want to be on the other side of it, wishing there was more of it. Making the most of every hour, minute, and second instead of

Five Minute Friday: Dwell

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ . This week's word is Dwell. I have thought about this word a lot - where should I dwell. After my divorce, I had a big decision to make - did I buy X's half of the house and continue to dwell where I had for the past 15 years or did I sell and move to a new dwelling. After crunching numbers and weighing my options, I decide to stay in the house we had bought together. Because, when it came right down to it, I loved my house. I felt safe there. I try not to dwell on the sadness that happened in this place but instead try to dwell on making it my own. I have painted rooms in colors X would have never agreed upon, I have bought artwork that he would never have hung. I want to dwell in a place that reflects who I am. When the yard is full of weeds and the basement full of water, I long to dwell in