THIS MISSISSIPPI GIRL IS FEELING (Very) NOSTALGIC !

Several recent events (very close together...within the past 6 months) have reminded me of how temporal things in life are and how one should never get overly attached to material things or even to circumstances.

Anything that we have..even our very lives can be taken away/be gone in the blink of an eye.

We should always be thankful and grateful for each day and it's blessings.

The things that happened are not really big things..but just tugged at a place inside of me that had nostalgic feelings for them.

I presently live in the house that I grew up in.

In the front yard, right in front of a very large "picture" window was ( I hate having to say it in past tense ) a most beautiful pink dogwood tree.

My Dad planted it for my Mom because it was her favorite.

The tree was almost as old as I am ..almost 50 years old .

So many days in my youth, my Dad and I would sit on the couch near that picture window and look at the various birds gathered under the dogwood tree.

He would point out all the different ones and tell me all about them.

Every spring when Mom and I would walk around in the yard , we marvel over it's beauty when it was in bloom.

We did that just a few months ago.

We all loved that tree!

Last week it was blown down by a very strong wind/rain storm;
Winds speeds were reported at over sixty miles an hour!

Now our beautiful tree is gone and I (we) will never enjoy it's blossoms in the spring again.

I'm glad that I took lots of pictures in front of it (It was one of my favorite backdrops) ,so that I can look back on it's beauty and why we loved it so much !

Several months ago ,another strong storm downed a huge pine tree in the front yard. That tree along with about about 10 or 12 others were planted at our home right after we moved in (1965)

It's gone.

Dad would always love to look at the picture of me and my brother standing by the trees when they were just tiny little things.

I was probably 4 and my brother 7.

The trees in the picture are not even as tall as we were.

Now , the others that are left standing are well over 20 feet!

A few months before or after that... Can't really remember ...

We woke up to find that one of the brick columns with lampposts at the entrance of the driveway was completely demolished by some drunk or crazy driver that plowed straight through it .

Sometime in the middle of the night , they ran right through it.

When I walked down to get the morning newspaper ,bricks were everywhere...along with various car parts.

I really don't even know how they drove away or how they got away alive

(You wouldn't believe how fast and crazy people drive on country roads these days!)

That post , along with it's twin had been there since the house was built.

Well, now it's gone.

Unbelievably, the very same day that our precious tree was uprooted and broken , the house across the road from us burned to the ground!

The house has been empty for many years but I have such fond memories of the family that lived there when I was a child.

The house and that family were there before we moved in....probably early 50's .

When I got up early this morning I went outside to see the last of the super moon .

It was beautiful!

Then I glanced over a bit and saw a red /orange glow through the trees.

I thought that I was just seeing things or thought that there was a reflection of something there.

I had hubby to go check it out.

He came back and said that the house had completely burned down...just the last bits burning

I learned later that it must have started about 1 or 2 am or so and the fire engines and police were out there around that time. I heard nothing ! Hubby says I sleep through anything ! Well, he did , too !!!

The coals and random pieces of wood continued to burn/smoke well into the afternoon,

Now, the house is gone!

Nothing (material) last forever.

I must always remember to enjoy the beauty and blessings of each day .

The Nature Lovers poem and many more can be found in my book Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia- A Life In Poems

Both of my "little books of southern poems
are available on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/reflections-pnd

http://tinyurl.com/magnolia-mem-pnd