What Keeps Me Awake At Night (Part I)

What Keeps Me Awake At Night

~That the written word will be lost as we sit and type all our deepest thoughts on our blogs and emails.(I am just as guilty)

~That the beauty of secret journals and little girls with diaries adorned with heart shaped locks, will disappear.

~That dusty books,  the smell of an old book, the discovery of a forgotten tome of paper with broken spine and four leaf clovers pressed deep inside will become a thing of the past.

~That my son, and the sons of the world, will not realize he is capable of anything he could possibly accomplish, and will choose, instead, a less than savory path in life, influenced by all that this immediate-gratification world will thrust at him repeatedly.

~That my daughter, and all the daughters of the world, will sell herself short for the sake of airbrushed techno-pop fads that leave her self-esteem bankrupt.

 ~That tradition, family meals, recipes written by hand, tea parties, music played on old fiddles (including ancient instruments with funny names such as hurdy gurdy and lyre), and storytelling around the fire will vanish.

~That my children's children will not know the sweet taste of honey on their toast, and oatmeal, and in their cups of tea because we have addicted ourselves to digital satellite signals and bushels of high fructose corn syrup that are clogging the bodies and minds of these ultimately important pollinators.

~That simple folk medicine and the remedy of proliferate herbal wilds will be lost in exchange for a physician's prescription supporting mega-pharmaceuticals.

~That annual trips to cut Christmas trees and drink in the sharp pine air of north-wind winter will vanish with the ease of early artificial trees from Walmart.

~That the art of Christmas card writing will go the way of the dinosaur because of the internet.

Please help me to keep these things alive.

Tell the stories, take the time, do things the long, slow, and difficult way to preserve them.

Keep the ways of old flickering bright, so that they may be something new, exciting, beautiful, and useful for the generations to come.

Tradition, storytelling, handwork, care, time...keep them going.

Light a candle and do something the old way, the beautiful way.