Ever have an old memory come rushing back to the forefront of your mind? Sometimes it’s a dusty old thing from when you were a kid, maybe of a vacation from years ago. Maybe it’s a smell of something being made by a loving mother or wife. These old things sometimes feel as though they are gone forever, never to re-enter our lives. And this is true to a certain extent. There’s even something relieving about past memories, we can remember what we want, highlight the good parts, and create some closure to an old chapter in our lives.
Sometimes I drive around the historic districts in Tuscaloosa, and just think about the memories that have been made and shared in those antebellum beauties. Families being made, grown, and dispersed over the course of a lifetime. The winding one way streets that ungraciously intersect with overgrown college housing brings a whole new feel to the area. College glory days, seemingly impossible adventures, and a limitless future. The world full of potential.
You know houses, and homes, are funny things. They are material possessions, but they represent so much more than a figure at the bottom of an expense budget. Therefore we can assume that renovating, and restoring is not so much an act of investment protection as much as it is a part of the proper stewarding of our lives. No one designs and builds a home that is totally efficient and lifeless, we build them in a way that reminds us of our favorite pair of blue jeans. Comfortable, dependable, and timeless.
I was reading Garden and Gun today and ran across this article. It’s all about the re-invention of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In an instant I was taken back to when I was a child, and mom would cut the edges off before sending me to school. What really stuck with me in the story was that things that seem old, and out of reach, can be reclaimed and made new. This is true about PB&J’s and it’s true about our homes. Don’t let the trappings of life detract from your joy in home ownership and the memories that come from it.
*Photo from Garden and Gun
