Learning to walk

     Three old men were sitting in the park one day just like they did every afternoon, and they were one-upping each other over who had the best memory.

     The first old man thought he had the contest won, “My memory is so great I can remember the priest sprinkling me with holy water the day of my baptism!”

     The second old man chortled and proclaimed “I can remember the doctor slapping my bottom at the moment of birth!”

     The third old man knew he would have to out-do the memory of the second old man's first breath, “Ha!” the third old man exclaimed, “I remember going to a picnic one day with my father.....and coming back with my mother!”

     Gosh, I hope that joke is not copyrighted or anything – I don't know where I first heard it or who to give credit for it – just understand that it is not an original joke of mine, and we will let it go at that

My Grandmother had my baby shoes bronzed!

     My own earliest memory is really just a flash of a moment – my mother's smiling face was looking at me; and then my father's smiling face was looking at me. From what I can figure of these two visions – I think I was learning to walk! Mom was at one end of the living room cheering me on as I stepped in her direction, and then after walking to her, I turned around and stepped in the direction of my cheering Dad at the other end of the living room! Of course, in my eyes, the living room was much bigger then – in reality, I would have only needed a few steps to get from parent to parent.

     It seems far fetched to think I have a memory going back all the way to the time I was only a year old – I do not have any other memories of that time. Yet, I'm fairly sure that is what I am seeing in that vision. It is a memory that has always been with me. Writing it down here now, however, it has made me realize that the earliest memory of my life is of my Mom and Dad each giving me a great big cheering, celebratory, approving, loving smile. I had never thought of it that way before – instead, I have spent my life thinking that I will never have their approval – and yet it has been there all along, from the very beginning!

Today they are used as bookends

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