Our train of thoughts leads us on a nice journey

These are not my words. They are someone else’s words, but they are food for thought. “Every person has a train of thought on which he or she travels when they are alone. The dignity and nobility of life as well as happiness depends on the direction in which the train is going, the baggage it carries and the scenery through which it travels.” Well, let’s decipher it with my thoughts. We think a lot not only when we are alive. I remember clearly my first thoughts as a child. I was about three years and four months. Mom had a beloved older sister Elizabeth and Mom left me with her for a few hours. I see her even now almost seventy-six years later as a sweet, caring Auntie and she made me a lunch of chicken. I can see her standing there gently cutting the chicken up in small pieces as you do for children. She urged me to eat and then she played with me. Mom then returned and she picked me up. Shortly thereafter, she passed on from Leukemia. She was only thirty-eight years old and Mom mourned her for a long time. They had been devoted sisters and they were very close. That is my first real memory as a little three year old kid. So this was my first train of real thought. I remember Aunt Elizabeth as dignified and noble, though then, I did not know these words. Now as an adult of senior age, I remember when I became a first time Auntie at age twenty, which was the child of my brother. I loved this child with a passion, I bought her lots of toys and clothes and I hung on to every word she uttered, thinking she was the smartest and prettiest little girl alive. She was a flower girl at my wedding when she was around six. I remember when I got engaged and she was five then, she uttered these words “Aunt E.T. your ring is so sparkly, Aunt So and So, her ring is not shiny like yours”. Quite an observation from a six year old, comparing the clarity and color of a ring. When we are alone, we can think about things that bother us, things that delight us and things we want to question. The things that disturb and horrify us , are the most unsatisfactory thoughts and we try to think them out, going this way and that way. This way is what we want them to be and that way is probably the way they are now. We reason with our self and we hope the winning way will be what we want them to be. Then the delightful things are the events that make us happy just rethinking about them and kind of reliving them again. We tuck them away in our memory treasure box and they are pulled out when we need them again. The disturbing things are different than the bothersome items. We can live with bothersome, it is hard to digest the disturbing things, because we wonder why they happened, did we let them happen and we hope they will never happen once again. We try to think how we can prevent them becoming prominent again. Yesterday we were visiting out of town the younger two grandchildren. We were out eating in a restaurant and my grandson said to his Daddy, my son. “I wish Grammie and Grandpa lived next door to us. I know they can’t, but I wish it.” What grander, sweeter and dear thing could grandparents wish to hear? I responded “I wish that too, I miss you so much when I do not see you. Maybe one day we will." There is a saying from Proverbs 23. It says "for as he thinks in his heart, so is he." Our train of thoughts can go on a journey and some times, the train stops at the right journey's end. Yes, little grandson and granddaughter, we are here now. elita sohmer clayman