The Keepsake Box

I took a creative writing class in high school. During one of those creative writing sessions, a guy in the class wrote this poem. I really connected with the poem and still have it memorized. I have no idea where he is now, it seems that all of us who graduated from the 1984 Hollister High School class have all gone our separate ways, but in any event, I'd like to share the poem with you.

The Keepsake Box by Chris Bridges

The box in the corner is...

Filled with treasures from past friends,

Broken dreams and promises

of endless loves......with ends.

I always had a box like that....full of notes to girlfriends and crushes and stuff. Just like a high school girl I always had those "endless loves" and they always had "ends". (I'm happy to say though that now...I have found my endless love!-just took me a while!)

In my studio, I have still have that box. It's not a glamourous box, it's just a really big box that I got when I bought a pair of leather boots. (You'd think that I'd decorate it huh??). Inside the box, you can still find all the trinkets and awards from my high school days, school photos of friends, napkins from restaurants with doodles and thoughts, there's even letters from school friends and cards from my grandma. On rainy days, or on days when I need a little pick me up, I dig thru the box and reminisce. More recently, I've added pictures that the kids have drawn, their favorite school work. The memories in that box span more than 30 years.

As you might have guessed, I'm thinking about that box now (and it's raining outside) I'm thinking about how quickly the time has gone buy since my first addition to the box. I'm thinking about Alex's kindergarten school work and I've now just added some of Julia's.

Mariah and I are really looking forward to this weekend. My Mother-In-Law, Louise is coming to visit. Friday morning we'll join my mom really really early and head down to War Eagle, a gi-normous craft show in Arkansas! On Saturday, Im hosting a huge crop at my house. I don't think Louise has ever been to a crop like this. There's nothing like the camradarie of great girlfriends! Maybe it's time to get out that box and see exactly what's inside it. Maybe I can work some bit of ephemra into a memorable layout and give it a much better life outside the box, rather than a life inside a box. Maybe you have a box like this, what have you filled it with?

I'm off to do some reminscing...seems like a good day for it!