Pondering and Reminiscing

Pondering. That's a funny word to me. I know it means "thinking" but "pondering" is not such serious brain work as "thinking. Not to me anyway.
Pondering is a light-hearted kind of wondering. It is a thinking with a smirk or a laugh or two about the way your thoughts are going. It denotes a thoughtful wandering.

Now "reminiscing", I know, is the same as "remembering". But, for some reason, it does not mean the same thing to me at all. Remembering is...to remember to clean the cat box, to remember to read your bible daily....serious stuff.
But reminiscing is the fun stuff of memories. Of "pondering" things and happenings and events of the past. It is like rereading a journal you wrote on one of your vacation trips or of just sitting and sharing with a friend about the school days....or of recalling the family gatherings. The things that were not funny when they happened, like during a camping trip where you ran into deer ticks and it poured cats and dogs the whole weekend. Certainly not funny then, but hilarious now. Can't believe my husband wanted to do it the next year too. But I think he would have been alone.

That's what happens to me this time of year, every year. I start pondering and reminiscing...of so many things.

This time I have been thinking of my family. I guess because I have a birthday coming soon.
I think the older you get the more you think about these things.

There were six children in my family. Now there is only my sister Es and Me.
I never really knew my mom very well; she died when I was only seven years old. I went to live with one of my sisters F and my sister Es went to live with the oldest sister E.

I owe alot to my sis F for taking me in like that. It could not have been easy for her. She had gotten married to a soldier and they had a 3 month old baby and here comes this nine year girl...who was now going to live with them in the house they shared with her husband's mom and dad. My sis F was only 12 years older than me. I am not sure I could have done that. I am thankful for them, that is for sure.

I never got to see my sisters and brothers much because we all lived in different states...so far away...and there was not much money, but F and I talked about them all the time, sometime not so pleasantly. Family is like that.

I think the weirdest thing I remember from childhood is how, everytime I pulled a 'stubborn' or did a stupid thing, my sis F said...you're just like your sis E. Never did undrstand that because we were separated so early, but I just accepted that I was like sis E. Really wondered what it meant.

The first time my whole family (well, I can't say whole, because sis E would not leave the state where she lived) got together was when I turned 40 years old. Amazing! And we seemed to pick up the conversation where it had ended 33 years before. How do families do that? but it is a blessing.

The only time all four of us sisters got together was one time when I lived in south fla and they all came to my house for a week. I really felt sorry for my husband and I assure you he was not at home much. ha ha
Anyway, during that week, we all laughed, cried, pondered, and reminiced together all week.
Then one day, as I was sitting there, just enjoying being with MY SISTERS,...what a joy that was.....I began listening and eavesdropping .....and, do you know what I found out????

My sis Es was like my sis F and I was like my sis E.
I cooked like her, liked the same songs, the same movies, liked the same foods....and, believe it or not, she and I are the only sisters in the family that are prone to fainting. Isn't that weird? Guess F was right.

So, my prayer is that my two kids will take the time when they get older to ponder and reminisce about their happenings during there times together.

To me, this is what makes family so precious....those special "bonding" times that nothing can erase or take away from us....those special times....serious and catastrophic at the time....but now are funny and are to be talked about, shared, and laughed over. What a blessing!

Thank you, Lord, for the memories. Some of them are learning times from You, some of them are things that we have to turn loose of and forgive and forget, some of them are just plain dumb, and some of them are brilliant times we've shared together.

But all of them are wonderful.