Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Arthur Levine

April 28, 2006

Today we are welcoming another new writer to our fold.  Arthur Levine becomes writer # 320 for Storytime Tapestry.  Please email him and let him know how much care about his story.

Arthur Levine
info@faith123.com

Grandma's Secret Potion Of Faith

Arthur Levine

Grandma Jenny slipped shoveling snow off the front steps of our home in
the midst of a fearsome snow storm at the age of ninety-six and broke
her hip. She was a feisty little woman who weighed only ninety-five
pounds and stood four feet-nine inches tall. The shovel was bigger than
Grandma. You might wonder why she was out shoveling snow early in the
morning at her advanced age, but it was part of her stubborn and
cantankerous nature. And it was a part of her tradition. She didn't
want my father going to work and getting his feet wet in the snow. It
was a matter of respect for the man of the house. It was a matter of
faith in her traditions. It was her way.

Grandma was from the old country - Russia to be specific. She came to
the United States as a girl of fourteen traveling for fifteen days on a
tramp steamer, and surviving on bread and water. She lost her
provisions, her money, and her clothes on the trip over to thieves that
hounded na?ve, unsuspecting young girls such as her as a normal part of
refugee voyages in those days. Most people though it was the work of
greedy members of the crew. She arrived in this country penniless and
literally with only the clothes on her back. But nothing could stop
Grandma from making a new life in the land of her dreams, or bringing
with her the rituals and traditions that were an innate part of her
heritage, her faith in God, and of her very being.

Until she slipped and broke her hip, Grandma Jenny had always been
healthy. None of us in the family could remember her having a cold. She
attributed her good health to a secret potion of Elderberry Brandy that
she distilled in the attic of our Georgian Colonial House. I have no
idea where she got the Elderberries from or how she prepared the brew.
We were never allowed up to her special place in the attic to see what
she was doing. Everything that Grandma did was a secret. In fact I
believe that Grandma Jenny had a secret way of communicating with God

Grandma had a shot of the special potion when she woke up in the
morning and when she went to bed at night -- which much she told us. To
the best of my knowledge it was the only medicine she ever took. On
rare occasions such as holidays and birthdays, we were all invited to
join her for a sip of her Elderberry Brandy. I was allowed to
participate from the time I was a teenager. Boy did that stuff pack a
wallop. It is no wonder that Grandma was never sick. The brandy must
have killed the germs. My dad didn't really like it. He was a scotch
man. My mother struggled to swallow it. She didn't drink. We all
participated in the ritual. No one in the family was about to insult
Grandma Jenny. She was too tough a cookie to be trifled with.  Grandma
Jenny always said a prayer in her native tongue before taking a sip of
her special potion. It was her way of communicating with God.

    On one of the rare occasions when Grandma Jenny bothered to talk to
me, communication was a problem since she spoke only Russian; I asked
her what was so special about the secret potion? She sort of half
smiled at me indicating that when I was more mature I would understand,
pointing at my head. Grandma was great at the universal language of
hand signals. I do understand a little Russian, but I don't speak the
language. Fortunately for me Grandma did understand English except when
she chose to pretend that she didn't.  Even the dog understood Russian
because Grandma fed him and he didn't speak at all.  When she called
him to come and get it in Russian, he came running. No one disobeyed
Grandma. The dog was a huge Boxer named Slugger. It was amazing to see
him cower in front of my Grandmother, and wait for her command allowing
him to eat. He sure didn't act like that with my father or me. He once
jumped up on my Dad and pushed him so hard that he fell down and
dislocated his shoulder. Slugger wouldn't dare jump up on my Grandma. 
The dog knew better.

After Grandma passed away, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out
what was so special about her secret potion and how to make it. Grandma
wasn't big on measurements or recipes. She insisted that you just add a
little bit of this and a little bit of that. This was the way she
talked when someone wanted to know how to make her yeast coffee cake or
her saffron laced ginger-carrot candy. Unfortunately the secrets died
with her.

  I think I finally have the answer when it comes to her secret potion.
It wasn't the herbs that she added. It wasn't how high the alcohol
content was. It was the love with which she made it and dispensed it to
the whole family. It represented to her a melding of old traditions and
new rituals. It symbolized her faith in God, and the respect she had
for our family and our Country. It was a way for her to celebrate her
freedom. It was her way of communicating her faith to God in a language
of kindness and caring that we could all understand.

Sometimes when I sip a little brandy late at night to help calm me from
the stress of the day and the threat of terrorism or natural disasters,
I wonder, couldn't we all use a little of Grandma's secret potion to
help us through these troubled times? The commercial stuff doesn't seem
to be doing the trick anymore. It lacks the tradition of caring,
kindness, and love necessary to make it a special brew. It lacks that
personal faith-filled touch of Grandma Jenny. It doesn't have her
tenacious character or her will to survive. It lacks respect.

There are some things that you can't put in a bottle, smack a label on,
and expect to work miracles. Sometimes you have to find the right
ingredients in your own heart. Sometimes you have to distill them
yourself. Sometimes the secret potion is within you. Sometimes it will
show you how to communicate with God.

By Arthur Levine
info@faith123.com
(c) Arthur Levine 2006


Arthur Levine is the author of the Magic of Faith, which can be
previewed at www.faith123.com.



Arthur Levine is the author of the Faith Patch Manual, which can be
accessed at http://www.faith-patch.com, and The Magic of Faith at
http://www.faith123.com.
View his blog at http://searchfor-god.blogspot.com