Paint Brushes Of Many Colors Become A Crown Of Living Elita Sohmer Clayman

The word anniversary means celebration, remembrance, and holiday. When we think of anniversaries, we have thoughts of wedding anniversaries. There are lots of other kinds of anniversaries. You can celebrate the buying of your new home as an anniversary, of buying a new car an anniversary, of traveling on a cruise and that was an anniversary of say two years ago. Well, I am celebrating on July 19^th, the anniversary of my first article/story for HuntValley-Cockeysville.Patch. com and then it was called just Cockeysville Patch. With the name change, it is like when a girl or lady marries, she adds another name to her original birth given name. So Cockeysville teamed up with Hunt Valley and they became one. This Thursday, July 19^th will be my first anniversary of writing for the Patch. Initial article was appropriately called A Blade Of Grass and that was in honor for Patch which is about little pieces of grass becoming a Patch.

Many people celebrate their wedding anniversaries with lavish parties or go to a fancy restaurant and spend lots of money eating food in a place with nice ambience. Others buy something special for the home to commemorate the occasion. Others go on a nice and special trip to remember the honeymoon with joy. Many do nothing and just remind each other with a bouquet of flowers or a nice greeting card.

My dad use to write mom a rhyming poem on how happy he was to have her as his wife and to be in his life. Lines that rhymed like that and she was quite pleased, he took the time to try and rhyme words to make it a sweet poem.

I know a young couple and I went to their wedding and by the time, she sent out thank you cards for the gifts, they were split up and did not even get to celebrate their first anniversary. That was odd, but it happened and everyone was sad for the two of them. When questioned why did you marry him if you did not love him she replied “because I loved the wedding gown and wanted to wear it.” This was a silly and irresponsible reason for marrying someone, when you no longer knew you cared for him.

We celebrate birthdays which are actually anniversaries of the day we were born and came into this world. We celebrate lots of events and I believe that is what life is all about and that is celebration. We also celebrate holidays and buy lots of presents in December for them and in November, we gather with relatives and some friends to celebrate Thanksgiving which is not a religious holiday. It is a regular holiday honored by everyone, regardless of their religion or faith. I think this is one of the nicest holidays when everyone celebrates it on the same day on a Thursday in the middle of a work and school week. They say it is the biggest travel day of the year; because everyone wants to come home and be with family and eat the big meal together.

I know of someone whose daughter married out of their religion and this bothered the mother a lot. She actually did not want to have too much contact with this daughter because religion was a great portion of their lives. The daughter and her baby lived in Colorado and the parents here in Baltimore. The parents and especially the mom really did not care anymore about the daughter and their first grandchild who were living in a faraway area. Well, Thanksgiving came that year and when the mom opened the door, there was this daughter and her child and her husband and they had come and surprised the parents. They came all the way from Colorado and the parents were so amazed and when they saw their first grandchild, a beautiful little girl of about eight months; something melted their hardened hearts and they realized that their child with her child and her husband, who was not of their religion were right here in their home. They knew that this was the way it should be, children visiting or parents visiting at least on holidays to be family again. Things changed for the mom/grandmother and she knew what she had been missing with not knowing or trying to know her first grandchild. So a holiday brought them together faster than any dialogue on the phone, through email, texting or whatever. They had flown in and the family was happy to have her there with them and with her family and together they became family again. George Santayana said “family is one of nature’s masterpieces.”

I can add to that and say it is a masterpiece we painted and created ourselves with paint brushes of varied colors and loving strokes to the canvas. The original mom and dad are the first colors on the canvas, then comes the children, then their children and if very lucky some more children. It winds up being a genuine and authentic jewel in the crown of living.

Our crowns of living are added on to constantly with things we accomplish and wonderful events happening. Now whenever, I see this woman I ask as usual “how are your grandchildren?”. She use to answer me with “I do not know, I rarely see the granddaughter.” I knew that, yet I had to stir the pot so she would remember that maybe next time, she could answer the question honestly. Now when I ask her that, her eyes light up and she pulls out a photo of the child or her cellphone with the picture right on the screen. She has pride now on her grandchild and another one from her son whereas before, she felt this silly shame about her daughter marrying out of the religion. Religion is all well and good, but no one in my opinion, should let it tear you apart from your kids.

Religion can join with some non-religious people in it and these people are still a part of the family and the family is a part of them. Our crowns of living are just that and we should place them on our heads and know that an anniversary or holiday that brings us together is just as important as believing in religion. The two can co-exist together, if we help it along to a home where all members live to be with each other and being with others is living.