Sunday, December 14, 2008

Stories as giftgiving : Familylore begins with you

Received my Holiday Season gifts from my eldest sister yesterday. It arrived, a brown cardboard box, quite plain in appearance but inside years of memories converged. This treasure trove of gifts were the articulation of memories that spanned over three decades.

Amongst the treasures, a weaver had recreated my snowy owl perched on a twig. It had attracted my sister's eye at the Ottawa Weavers and Knitters show. It told me she remembered I had regular visits from an owl very much like it at my hobby farm in Pense Sasktachewan in 1975. I still feel the cold of the prairie, I still hear the deafening quiet, still see the glaring white snow and the sight of this great white owl sitting majestically on the same pole everyday just outside my farm house.

Art galleries have been my favorite sources for inspiration. But it is the gift shop that provides the item or image you can take home. My sister includes every year a wall calendar. It always depicts some master painter, it could be impressionists, or modern, it might even be medieval tapestries. Whatever the theme it conveys my true passions as wide as they are. And only a sister would know. This year it was Gustave Klimpt. Along the same idea were cards, portraits by Klimpt and another set of cards portraying the same medieval tapestry from my calendar of 2007. Hidden deep in the box were humbugs by Robertson, and chocolates from Stubbe's. All my favorites, all precious, all defining a memory and bringing it to light to be shared again.

I wish you and yours the opportunity of sharing your stories over the next few weeks. Make giftgiving one that creates stories in your Familylore.

Be the teller,


No comments: