"See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil"

There they were, sitting on the mantle of my Grammy’s house.  Three little monkeys made of wood in a row. One had his hands over his eyes, one had his hands over his ears and one had his hands over his mouth.  I could hold them in the palm of my hand, even my little hand 5 year old hand. I loved them. The adults told me what they were about.. about not looking for bad things, not listening to people say bad things and not actually saying bad things. I’m not sure I really cared what they meant.  I just liked the monkeys.  But I suppose I liked the fact that whenever I asked to see them, the lesson was told again.  I don’t know where those little monkeys ended up.   They sat on my parents corner table but  they are both gone and no one knows what happened to the monkeys.  I wish I had them.  They would become one of my “treasures”.  They would join the boxes of things that I have deemed invaluable and must be brought from one apartment to another… always in my possession.  It’s an interesting assortment of stuff.  When I die, no one will have a clue why I saved the things I did.  That is because I have attached sentimental emotions to worthless trinkets. Like the monkeys. Our treasures bring back memories of something important to us in our lives. If we dumped the whole lot overboard, we most certainly would survive but nothing makes us smile more than a sweet little card from our 1st one in kindergarten.  How can we throw those things away???  So we put them in boxes and only when we do some major clean or move to a new house do we relish the treasures of our lives.  Today, I found a card from my son that said “It will be okay… I promise”.  I don’t even know what it was in reference to but it made me think of him and how I have to keep believing that he will be okay.  I saw the wedding picture of my Mom and Dad who loved each other so much!  I picked up an old bottle that I found down by the river but it turns out it wasn’t really that old… just dirty.  I threw that one out.  My brother gave me this really pretty rock. I’m keeping that because he must have really liked it too to have it in his house and he gave it to me because I liked it.  It’s just a rock.  I have a driving hat from when I had a convertible.  Hat looks dumb and I don’t have a convertible anymore.  I kept the hat. I wrote a letter to my 17year old son (about 11 years ago) explaining to him the “guidelines” of how we were going to live together with respect and consideration.  I kept that. The orange pot that came with the plant after my husband died.  I threw that out.  Not sure why I kept it in the first place.

What will I do with theses “treasures” in my new house?  I’ll put them up in a closet. I don’t really want to move again for a long time but I hope I find a reason to open up these boxes once in a while.   It is nice to sift through the treasures of my life and smile.  I can’t say that I have always lived up to the lesson of the monkeys. (I say bad things sometimes when I’m driving). But I remember a loving family that thought it was important to teach me to be kind.    My box of worthless trinkets keeps my family and my memories available for reminiscing.  But the convertible hat really does look dumb.