Ideas Into Actions: For Little Liv

The first email to my daughter:

Hi baby girl,

So I finally put into action this idea I found on FB: signing you up for an email account now and sending you reminders of my love throughout the years and then giving you the password on your 18th birthday (although by then who knows what form emails will take).

I will try to be somewhat judicial about what I include so that opening all of the emails/links/pictures remains exciting and not painstaking (although if you are anything like me and your Tia Ashley +Ashley Keene you never will tire of hearing about/looking at yourself :) In fact, I still try to make Daddy view old family videos of me when I was the age you are now.

Here is something I wrote when you were first born; I was an adjunct at Baldwin-Wallace College and used this poetry prompt in my English composition class (assignment inspired by George Ella Lyon's poem)- I was/am so excited to both share and recreate some of these memories with you:

I am from steel mills, church festivals, annual garage sales, bowling alley bars and a traditional neighborhood complete with bike parades and block parties. I am from wood forts and lightening bugs and summers spent at the swim club.  I am from the calls of neighborhood kids in the yard, disputes over softball scores, and the sound of feet on trampoline vinyl. I am from handmade haunted houses and staging stories.  I am from playing the organ at our fake Christmas mass and I am from a front yard that housed a big green spray painted dinosaur made all of snow. I am from Bernie’s hometown, miles and miles of beautiful smiles up and down the boardwalk, Carolina moons, and catching crabs after dark.  I am from cities, and states, cultures and continents.

I am from steak umms and dippy eggs and Sunday dinners with sauce. Sauce full of chicken, sausage, and meatballs. I am from buckeye cookies, fried fish, and macaroni on Christmas Eve night and jellybean trails on Easter.  I am from buttered fries, Kraft macaroni and cheese, and salads that are anything but healthy. I am from sour worm candies shared with Grandma. I am from a family who loves wine -  - with everything. 

I am from call me when you get there, Lalee, and I’m freezing. I am from are those eggs fresh and are those potatoes instant? I am from look at the hoopies, I worshed the clothes, grab a buggy, and you don’t even like cake. I am from “No more bread until you eat your salad”, “I’ll pay you a quarter to rub my back” and ‘I wish you two could get along.  Ya know, she’s all you have one day”.  I am from “never go to bed mad,” “we are proud of you” and “Darling, when we’re not together there’s one thing I want you to know ‘I’ll love you from here to forever and be there wherever you go.’”

I am from a family of military men.  I am from Euchre, Aggravation and most recently Pinochle. I am from a family where everyone tells the same stories over and over again and somehow they never feel old.  I am from relatives who mostly sing off key (all except the Yanno’s), but sing just the same.  I am from the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas'' and "Like a Virgin". I am from sibling rivalry and knock down drag outs with a sister who has always been my best friend. I just didn’t know it then. I am from a mom who has shown me what it means to work hard, sacrifice, and share and a dad who taught me to how to let loose and laugh. I am from a shared bed with my mom and the Snow Queen and trying to learn moves from a dad who danced. I am from a broken home, that isn’t broken at all. 

I am from a place I’d never thought I’d be which is why I want to share my past with you Olivia Beckett, mi futuro.