Going to Take a Sentimental Journey

***This afternoon while going through another box I found my childhood Bible.  I thought that it had been lost along the wayside.  I cannot express how happy and excited I am to find the Bible I remember using and reading as a child.  On a side note in the same box I found my Ken doll, naked.  Well, he has on shoes, my Swiss Miss doll and a wild looking Hawaiian doll that I don't ever remember owning.  I also found some money, mainly pennys, dimes and nickels, but there was a dollar bill.***


This morning has been a sentimental journey.  In the never ending quest of an organized closet and now getting things in a ready position to move in five or so months, I've tackled three boxes of memories today.  Among the junk I kept, really what was I thinking, I have found my grandfather's Bible, scrapbooks of my parents, letters from people I remember and from people I have no clue who they are or why they were thanking or thinking of me.  Even came across photos that I thought had long since disappeared.  Well in one sense they did into the bottomless hole in the back of the closet.  There is art that our nieces created in their much younger years, several letters that I wrote home as a child while visiting my grandparents or attending camp and many many letters my mom wrote while they lived in Georgetown.  I even came across some letters from my high school and college boyfriend.  I thought I had thrown those away long ago but in finding them I did find a blessing.  Richard had sent me a picture and article about him from the newspaper about his internship with a compassionate ministry.  My sometimes faulty memory thinks that this was the only copy he ever had of the article.  So I Googled him today knowing he is a pastor, found the church he shepherds and mailed him the newspaper clipping with a note, but no return address.  Hope that it is a pleasant surprise for him.  Even came across a letter from my crazy friend Debbie.  It is as funny today as it was the 25 years or so ago that she wrote it.  Among everything is one of my grandpa Brownlow's five year diaries.  He mainly reported on the weather, but I must get my love of journals and journaling from him.  Lots and lots of cards and notes from Roy that were tucked away.  When my parents were cleaning out their home many years ago, I became the trustee of old newspaper articles about man landing on the moon, JFK assassination, the seven day war, World War II reports and one very strange article that doesn't seem to fit at first glance.  It is an article about a woman who had died, but no one could find her latest will.  So, her niece received everything that is until an older will had been found.  The lady had left almost everything to the local Methodist Church.  So the niece had to relinquish the land and money to the church.  That clipping is in a high school scrapbook of my father.  Strange thing for an 18 year old to hang onto or give attention to.  The ol' shredder has been working overtime this morning because not only did I keep sentimental things, I also kept a lot of junk.  What probably happened is, I got tired of going through things years ago or I had no idea where to put stuff, so lots of junk was thrown in with treasured keepsakes.  Those three boxes have now been compressed into one large plastic storage container.  Just a little worse for the wear from all the dust, but it has been a, dare I say it, a sacred moment today going through all these things that have recorded random aspects of life so far.  Much of what I read today is the impacting words from those who have loved me, thought of me (even if I can't remember who they are now) and encouraged me.