STORYTIME TAPESTRY

The Newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world

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Special Treat ??“ Sharon Bryant

Nov 7, 2005? 

WHY ARE WE HERE?

? Sharon Bryant

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The other day I was with a few friends for lunch.?  We began talking about our lives, what we had accomplished, the dreams we had but never fulfilled, our children, etc.

One of them then asked, "Why are we here?"?  No one said anything and one said, "Hey Sharon, you meet people all the time, you hear stories about life, why do you feel we are here?"

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Suddenly the way our minds speed back in time, many thoughts struck me.?  I wondered why my son wasn't left here on this earth for more than five years.?  I thought of my own mother who died at age 59 of cancer.?  My brother who died at age 45 and all the family and? friends I've lost along the way.

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I hesitated a moment then said, "I think we are here for a mission.?  Unknown to us, whatever we should be able to accomplish may have been done while we were young.?  Maybe we older ones have not fulfilled the mission we are sent here for."

Everyone looked at me and I could see everyone was in deep thought.

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Then one said, "I always wanted to paint pictures and I've never done that."?  Another said, "I always wanted to travel worldwide and I've never been able to do that."?  I listened as each one began telling of things they had hoped to do but never did.

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Suddenly I thought of my own life and what my dreams had been.?  I had not accomplished the one dream I'd always had which was to become a writer.?  Then I thought that perhaps what I wanted and what God wanted were two different things.

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Life has been a struggle many times for me as well as many people I have known.?  Divorce caused a big financial crunch years ago and it took me forever to get back to where I was, but with hard work, I was able to accomplish it.?  I then began to think of what at my age today, I expected to do or fulfill for whatever time I still have left.?  I knew the answer.

I can't help but think daily of the saying, "It's not what we gather but what we scatter that shows the kind of life we have lived."?  At my age today, I prefer to scatter.

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When I came home from lunch, I sat down at my kitchen table and began to? look at? things in my home.?  The old sewing machine that sits in the corner of one room.?  What had I accomplished with that??  I remembered the clothes I used to make my children when they were little.?  I remembered the fabric I had bought and made someone I cared about a soft blanket while she was on chemo always telling me she was cold after the treatments.?  I remembered the smile she gave me when I gave it to her, thanking me for taking the time.

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I looked at trinkets I've gathered through the years.?  I smiled as I looked at the little pair of wooden Dutch shoes I'd purchased for my first son and how tickled he was to have wooden shoes with his named engraved on them.

I looked at photographs, and smiled as I saw the grin on my daughter's face the night she graduated.?  I'd captured her joy and happiness of the accomplishments she had made.

I looked at the photo of my remaining son in his ROTC uniform, so proud to have spent four years training for military.?  And then I looked at the large portrait of my first son who didn't live long enough to accomplish things in life but who left me with a pride of being his mom that only a mom can understand.

I thought about what he had scattered in his five short years on earth.?  He scattered a lot of love.?  He touched many lives while he was here, and he left me with the greatest memories as his mom.

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I looked at the photo of my mom and dad and wished mom could still be here.?  How many times I've needed her in the past 24 years.....I can't count.?  Yet I knew she scattered knowledge to me and my siblings that we will remember the rest of our lives.?  Dad is still scattering his love at age 84.?  The things he has scattered for so many still live in hearts today.?  Someone told me yesterday my father had been the best employer he'd ever had and he's never forgotten the kindness my father always showed him.

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I thought about how so many think having materialistic things seem to be what life is all about.?  I looked at my old rocking chair which is showing signs of age and tattered fabric.?  I rocked three babies in that chair.?  I knitted baby afghans, read books, sipped ice tea and watched my children play from sitting in that old rocker.

I know it's not the fancy rockers that I can buy today, but the memories it holds in my home is priceless.

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I thought about so many that my life has come in contact with.?  The years I spent going to convalescent homes meeting the older folks, reading stories to them, just chatting and helping make their day brighter.?  I thought about my grandma whom I would have given my life for, and what she and I had shared in the 26 years she was here in my life.?  I thought about family members and things I had learned from them, and things I had passed on to the younger ones.

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I've come to the conclusion that perhaps I have scattered a few things in my lifetime and I liked doing so.?  And though I often wonder how much time I've still got yet, I know my mental list has not been completed.?  I hope to scatter more.?  For I believe if we can touch one life while we are here, we have done the greatest thing a human can.......to help another.

I know I still have work to do.

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Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

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About Me:

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I am Sharon Bryant,? 59 years old and reside in Alabama. I lost my child in 1977 when he was five and I write articles on bereavement often. I am a chocolate/candy maker and also a wood crafter and knitter.I am married to a wonderful man, and have two remaining children, a daughter 26,
Amy, and a second son, Randy, age 24.

My main goal in life is to help those who
have lost a child. My website is: www.angelsremembered.tk

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