Comfort

     I've been thinking lately about comfort.  Not just comfort food, which is really good, but comfort in life. How, at different times, we find comfort in different ways.

     It all starts when we are small. Falling down, scraping our knee, our hand. At times like that, we take comfort in knowing our mom or dad will be there, to 'kiss the boo-boo'.  As we get older, when our heart is broken for the first time by 'love', we know a parent or grandparent or even a good friend will be there, saying what we need to hear.
     Then we grow up and we become the Comforter.  We kiss the 'boo-boos',  listen as a broken heart cries.  We stay up and rock the crying baby, sit and watch a feverish child as they fitfully sleep.  We stay up and wait till our child comes home safely, from that first date or that late night job.  It is what we do, what our job is.

     Sometimes, when we need to be comforted as we grow old, we remember things from our childhood.  Most times, we remember things that no one else does.  I remember my maternal grandpa very clearly.  I only saw him once, when I was about 18 months.  I remember my daddy holding me,over his shoulder, and I was looking up at the stairs in my grandparents house.  My grandpa walked down the stairs, came over to me, took my hand and kissed my forehead.  That was the only time I saw him, but after 50 plus years, it is like it happened yesterday.

     I believe that we are allowed to remember certain moments, so when we need them, they are there to give us comfort.  These 'moments' can also be triggered by sounds or smells.  The first rain in the spring, the smell of a freshly mown  lawn, the snow falling on the trees in the forest.  Anything can trigger these memories.
     As I grow older, and now only with one daughter left at home, I find myself  remembering so much from my childhood.  Aunts and uncles who are gone, looking at pictures of cousins I've never met, places family have lived that I may never visit.  I hope that I am giving my children, most of whom are grown with children of their own, memories like these.  Happy times that they can look back on when they are walking the floor with their baby, kissing those 'boo-boos' of their children.  Making new memories that give them comfort.
     I hope all of you have moments and memories that you can go to when you need comfort.
Hugs....