Today was a rough, and at one point I needed to retreat to the bathroom for solace. It was a day of missing people, feeling stretched thin and wondering when the relief will come. When I finally decided to sit down and breathe very slowly, I saw that The Karate Kid was on HBO. With that, I pulled a blanket over me, Salem hopped on my lap and the boys each found a spot to lay. It was an open invitation for nostalgia.
Feeling sentimental for my childhood, I pulled out a CorningWare dish in which to bake a casserole tonight. My mother gave me a small collection of her abundant CorningWare supply a few years ago and I simply do not use them enough. As our dinner baked, I thought about the many dinners served at my Mamaw and Papaw’s table, each dish keeping some vegetable or meat warm as Papaw blessed the food. And each dish sat on a potholder that Mamaw sewed herself.
The boys gave no notice of the CorningWare dish tonight, and it’s probably safe to say they’ll never notice it. But for me, it stirred a deeper feeling than just missing my family. It was a reminder that I shouldn’t be so far away for very much longer.
