Barefoot Memories of a Hillbilly - Tangles

My life, like a poorly drawn road map, has led me towards many places I didn't have any business traveling. And seems like me and a lot of other folks out there, struggled to follow the straight and narrow' only to veer on and off course and then back again. And I'm not ashamed either, cause I finally came to realize that it was people like me that gives God purpose. HE wouldn't be interested in watching over perfect people, and I know I've certainly kept him from being bored, what with keeping up with some of my escapades. I am vastly blessed that he is a forgiving God.

Preacher Hubert asked me if I would consider coming over to stay with his wife, Miz Lanie for a couple weeks. She had just gotten home from a hospital stay for pneumonia and Preacher Hubert and both of his adult youngens had family and jobs that depended upon them. Being at one of those crossroads in my life, (between being an adult and/or learning to act like one,) I told him I would be delighted. Little did I know what a delight it was to be. Miz Lanie was wheelchair bound due to a crippling arthritic condition, and found herself restricted to only the passages in her home that her wheelchair would pass. Her days were long with lengthy bouts of time sitting all day long in her wheel chair at her dinning table watching out a set of French doors into a TV room. Yet, for as long as her days were and in spite of the pain she endured in silence, she never lost her kind and gentle manner. Her voice was gravelly, but always even and low. Her hair once a lovely red faded a bit, and her complexion ruddy from harsh medications. Slim fingers, with delicate, well shaped nails, that she used that summer to teach me some important growing up lessons in life. Day after day, mile after mile', she removed tangles from reject yarn from the a local Spinning company in London that someone was kind enough to bring her. Bags and bundles of tangled yarn.

She taught me patience as we spent time separating the tangles and discussing life and the lessons needed to grow. A couple weeks grew into months. I came to love her dearly as she taught me how to take the yarn straightened from its tangled mess and turned it into crocheted pieces of art. After a bit of time, I realized that like the tangled yarn, she was teaching me how to untangle my mind and nature. She showed me that even my tangles could be turned into good. She would pull her wheelchair up to the kitchen counters and reaching beyond her pain to show me the correct way to knead the yeast dough for her delicious donuts. Showing me that in life you sometimes got to reach beyond the obstacles. When friends and family came by she was adamant that I be included, because I had become her family and friend.

Several months later, I found myself ready to head out on life's highway once again, a bit different that I had arrived. But, on this journey I found a few extra life lessons and memories to take with me, as well as the patience and tolerance I would need to deal with many tangles farther down the road I came to know is life.

I wear shoes now, but sometimes I have barefoot memories.