Picking Through the Trash

Turning everything inside out, upside down, I slowly reorganize and purge our home.  It has been a tremendous undertaking, but one I am definitely reaping results and basking in the benefits. 

Recently, I re-organized our school room. In doing so I needed to ask the children to clean out some of their personal paper piles.  They began the task with gusto, but ten minutes later, they were bored and dragging.  After some much needed encouragement, and perhaps the promise of a reward a bribe.  They finished up after another ten minutes. 

Each child had made substantial improvements on their paper piles.  Many items were recycled and a few were trashed.  The remaining small piles were neatly stacked and ready to be moved. 

It was then that I noticed a few precious articles in the recycling pile.  Gingerly, I leafed through the trash and recycling piles, retrieving a few items.  These treasures were saved from demise.  Among them a postcard a daughter 'had to have' at an art museum visit, a notebook from Orchard House filled with childish scribbles and traced hands, and an original poem written by a son. 

Though these pieces have lost their value to my children, the items prompt precious memories for me, filling my eyes with tears and my heart with love. 
~ Dorie