Several months ago, my back porch area was rebuilt. My windchimes had to come down and were relegated to just being kept outside in a plastic tub. Well, weather being weather, the tub filled up with rain water and the windchimes were forgotten.
I don't know what got into me, but I decided that they should be re-hung. I took them out of the tub, cleaned them off, restrung one of them that had "rotted" from being submerged in water for months and figured out the best location for each one.
Today, as they tinkled in the wind, my mind floated back in time. While I was growing up, my mom always had windchimes. She usually got the glass ones that had pressed flowers between the panes of each chime. Being out on the 'farm', in the open air, where the breezes would gently push those chimes together, those memories were nudged into my conciousness as I listened to the musical concert. It brought such a smile to my face.
My mom passed just over two years ago. When clearing out her mobile home (a long way from the farm we had grown up on), I heard something and went out to her back porch. There was a large windchime, the only one she had left, just spinning in the wind, making its presence known.
I remember restringing that windchime for my mom years ago. She was quite upset that it had become tangled and broken. Some fishing line, a bit of time and it was ready to sing its song again. My mom was delighted. She always loved the sound of those chimes.
When it comes to windchimes, you have to find just the 'right' one. Some chimes play a song that just doesn't sound like sweet singing to your ears. I have been known to 'play' every set of windchimes in a store just to hear the sound, looking for the one that calls me. I'm sure my mom must have done the same thing. The song of the chimes had to call her as they do me now.
It turns out that my younger sister wanted those chimes at my mom's house and I let her take them. It's the only set of chimes my sister has hanging in her patio. No doubt, she has memories of mom whenever she hears them play.
Rehanging mine has made me both happy and sad. I miss my mom terribly, and although she isn't here to listen to their songs, my hearing the chimes sing brings back many memories of the times she and I shared together.
Windchimes and Memories
January 8th, 2007 at 12:02 am
January 8th, 2007 at 12:24 am 1168215846
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January 8th, 2007 at 08:03 pm 1168286633
It's funny how the littlest things will trigger such powerful memories. One of those things for me is the smell of burning leaves in the fall. My grandfather would always burn piles of leaves in NJ (before it became illegal to do so) and that smell always brings me back to my beloved Grandpa.
January 8th, 2007 at 08:42 pm 1168288959