The Smallest Things: Part One

When I decided that I wanted to write about my Grandma Betty, I decided that I wanted to write with so much detail and description that people, who didn’t know her, could feel like she was their grandma too.  I wanted to put everything that I remembered about her down on paper so I wouldn’t forget (I wish I had done this years before).  Because there were so many memories and moments I had of her and with her, I made a web before I even started to write so that I would have tons of writing topics immediately at my fingertips.  As I was making the web (its huge and I have gone back multiple times to add more memories) I wondered if I should write about the super small things.  Small things that I wondered even if mattered in the big picture, or to others.  But then I thought, “of course it matters!  The small things really truly made my Grandma Betty who she was.”  So here goes, the small things…

Bird feeders.  Always two and always filled with seed.  But “damn those squirrels,” as my grandma would say.

To my grandma, nothing was better than sitting on the back porch and watching the birds.  She would sit there for hours, in silence, and man was she content.  She knew all of the types that showed up and even had names for a few.  She especially loved the red cardinal.  As most people know, male and female cardinals are actually different colors.  The red begin the male and the female is a brown with light red intertwined.  My grandma loved how the male always came first, checked for danger, and then called the female when the coast was clear.  Sometimes I think she wished she could grow wings and fly with them.

There were two things Grandma Betty hated though when it came to bird watching.

1. Squirrels (because of the bird feeder was attached to the railing of the porch, squirrels would always get into the feeder and eat all of the seed.  To combat this problem, Grandma Betty brought a feeder that would close if something too heavy stepped onto a lever)
2. Noise (if you came over to Grandma Bettys cottage and disturbed the birds when she was on the porch you better have had your riot gear on because my grandma brought the hurt)

Some days, when I was older and could sit quietly for longer periods of time, I would join her.  We would sit together in silence, enjoying the sun warming our skin, and smiling at the peace of that moment in time. 

I am so lucky that the silence meant so much.