Would you please give a warm welcome to my guest blogger (drum roll, please), my Dad: Nick Huizenga!
Since retirement I have done some chores that I have not done for many years, but circumstances change. ?I have been making our bed and folding laundry. ?I “don’t mind” these tasks, but I don’t take the care that Joan does, and I don’t do them as well.
With one exception: ?the folding of socks. I fold the socks very carefully; and, more than “not minding,”I take some pleasure in doing so. Joan has shown me an easier way, but I persist in doing it the way I learned many years ago.
I fold socks the way my mother showed me when I was a small child. ?And I experience good feelings as I do so, fondly remembering my mother.
Though this cherished instruction goes back over 75 years, I recall Mother recruiting me for this special job. ?I was delighted that I was considered worthy of being such an important assistant. And I felt proud when Mother said that I had done it well. ?At that time I had at least five siblings who competed for Mother’s attention, and this attention was powerful.
Imagine, an old man sitting on a bed folding socks on a Monday afternoon because it is uncomfortable to stand, still affected by loving words spoken over three-fourths of a century before.
Nick Huizenga
Affirmations are powerful things. Thanks for sharing ours so beautifully. It made me smile.
What a wonderful memory to carry. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks, Dad. This makes me see you, sitting on that bed, and it makes me see Grandma, with her freckled arms, giving you what you needed.