Slice of Life: Lost 12 of 31

For the month of March, I'll be writing with the Slice of Life community. Disclaimer: I'll be writing every day so the writing will be a bit unpolished most days. Thanks to Two Writing Teachers for bringing this community together and for inspiring me to try to find the stories that surround me each day.

Today's slice comes from a piece of writing written during our coaches' meeting today.  The idea was from an activity Brenda Power shared at Lead Literacy, What We Lost, from a mentor text by Amy Krouse Rosenthal:  Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  

When I was a kid, I spent two weeks each year at my grandparents' house.  For one week each summer, and one week over Christmas, I would pack my suitcase and head to their house.  My time there is among my favorite memories.  While I visited, one of my favorite things to do was to admire the jewelry in my grandma’s jewelry box. Every time I stayed, I’d put on her long beaded necklaces, clip earrings to match, and sport a pin or two. She always allowed us to play in her glamorous treasures which I realize now were just pieces of costume jewelry. My grandma was a simple woman; I rarely saw her wear any of it.

In her jewelry box, one of my favorite items was her mustard seed pin. The pin was a gold bow with a transparent glass sphere dangling below.  The mustard seed was suspended in the middle of the sphere.  It was fascinating.  Every time she pulled it out, she’d tell the story of how the pin reminded her that if you had faith in a mustard seed you could move a mountain. I honestly never understood the saying. As a child, I often found myself wondering who’d want to have faith in a mustard seed after all?  In time, I understood her to mean if you could believe in small things, big things could happen.

After years of pulling that pin out of her jewelry box, one day she gave it to me. I loved that pin. When I was still quite young, I wore it places from time to time, but eventually the pin spent more time in my jewelry box.  As the years passed, it moved from one jewelry box to another. At some point, it was lost. At what point in my life, I am unsure.  All I know is I think about that mustard seed pin and my grandma often.