Mama Says Om - Time

My grandmother's pocket watch. . . . Grandmother travelled beyond the fields we know twenty years ago, but I still have her pocket watch, and it lives in its velvet box in the drawer of my night table. I take the watch out often, and I never do it without thinking of her, with boundless love and a gratitude which goes beyond mere words.

Grandmother was my oasis of calm and my sanctuary when I was a child. She taught me about compassion, gratitude and the great silence - she taught me about love, tolerance, connection, and the golden rule. She taught me about wild places and walking mindfully, wherever my travels took me and whatever life delivered to my doorstep. She imparted useful everyday skills: how to grow herbs, build a fire and bake bread in a woodstove, how to tell time using the old pocket watch or by the position of the sun in the sky, about the elements and the five directions, how to find my own way home through the dark woods and the gloaming.

Fifty years later, as I share grandmother's priceless legacy with my own grandchildren, her pocket watch rests easy in my hand while we are all pottering along together. I am very conscious that if I should live for several centuries, I shall never achieve even a small measure of her grace, her wit, her wisdom and her solid Quaker goodness. I still miss grandmother so much, even after all these years. Have I mentioned how beautiful she was, how radiant?