A few days ago, I retrieved an old jewelry box that had been stashed in a closet for decades. During the years we worked overseas, Dave’s mom had stored some of our things…a great number of our things. We have been gathering them – sorting, giving away, and keeping the things still precious to us.

This jewelry box I’ve had since high school. Nothing valuable…except for the memories. Most everything in the box was from those high school and college years. An occasional trinket was added later. Especially those times we returned overseas and left memorabilia behind in the States.

It was a walk down memory lane, and you know I have to share it with you. The best of the lot is displayed; the rest will go out of the house.

So here we go:

• a pink stone – round and perfectly smooth.
• a scarab bracelet and a gold hand of Fatima pendant (little did I know as a teen that one day, living in Egypt, these would worn by all my friends).
• the cross necklace I wore every day all through school.
• a pink gemstone necklace and a gold heart necklace (for special occasions).
• a silver locket (with our family picture in it).
• a music medal from school and my school of nursing pin (Emory University).
• a “children of the world” pin.
• my Dad’s pocket watch (one of many he had; plain but precious) – I wound the stem and it started working again after decades of being still. Looked at it just now. Still the correct time.
• a quilt-and-button pin made by a friend and a cancer support group I.D. button.
• an Egyptian necklace also made by a friend in Egypt.

Thanks for letting me just take you down this path for a moment.

Finally, I found two charm bracelets. The first was just a souvenir from a visit to New Orleans, Louisiana. That was the start of my journey of discovery in many of the world’s cities.

The other charm bracelet was actually a lost treasure that I had wondered what ever happened to it. Every charm has a story of what mattered to me as a teen and young woman – among them a Cherokee drum, a globe, a drama mask (my favorite club in high school), a heart, a piano, praying hands, Duluth High School Wildcats (my alma mater), a grizzly bear (Smokey Mountains), a dog (my favorite pet growing up), a a couple of charms from my Girls’ Auxiliary days in church.

My family wasn’t in church until I was in first grade. It was all new and exhilarating for me. Girls’ Auxiliary (G.A.’s), the girls’ organization later known as Girls in Action, had a huge impact on my young life and right through to today. Most of the Bible verses now hard-wired in my brain were learned while in G.A.’s. We were immersed in serving our community and learning about the world beyond our small county. It was an amazing, formative experience …thus having its place on that charm bracelet.[I’m in the Queen Regent-in-Service regalia, brunette on left, and my beautiful mom is standing over my right shoulder. This was an end-of-year “coronation” – crowning a year of serving in our community. Not something you see very often anymore – if ever – even in Southern church life.]

How about you? With COVID and spending more time in our houses in recent months, have you found time capsules of a sort? We would love to hear about them. They are anchoring experiences – these moments when the past converges with the present.  Sometimes it feels like two different lives.

That young person…and the older present one.

Life is precious and fleeting. Even in days of hardship, we can remember the gifts still with us (either literally in an old pocket-watch, or the memories of kind and funny father).

I hope you come across both old things and old friends in these days. Or maybe put a time capsule (of a sort) together yourself, tuck it in a closet…and one day, it could be a happy discovery, or re-discovery.

Blessings.