I Am a Chronicler - Storytelling with Gabriel

A Chinese philosopher once observed, "When you write things down you live them twice." Maybe that is why it is so satisfying for me to take time to quickly document these snippets of my life in this blog.  It is also true that when you tell a story, you live the event twice.

Yesterday I got to be a Grandmother again as I spent the day with Gabriel.  He is now 9 and the greatest gift I receive from him is his enthusiasm for life.  He is very inquisitive and his little brain never stops churning.  His dad told me that the other evening Gabriel asked him, "How did you and mommy meet each other?"  I felt my heart quicken...he is ready for the "family stories!"

People who know me, know that I consider it part of my task in life to record the events of the family.  There is always a digital camera in my purse and every gathering is captured on my secure data memory card, posted on Kodak Gallery and may even end up on a PhotoStory DVD in a Christmas Gift.  So I have the pictures and I have the stories.

Yesterday I pulled out a little photo album and began to talk to Gabriel about his parents.  He told me the story of how they met and I asked him if would like to see some pictures of his parents' wedding.  His eyes got as bit as saucers and he said, "Do you have some?"  Curled up on the couch, leaning into my side, he began to turn the pages of the album and I began to tell the story.  He recognized many of the people and laughed at a picture of his now 15-year-old cousin carrying a baby bottle.  We looked at his mom and dad holding hands, making promises to love and take care of each other, and saw how they were beginning to form a family...but one thing was missing.  Gabe looked at me and said... "They needed a baby! That was me! Do you have pictures of that, Mima?"

Of course I did!!  So out came that album and I told the story of the day he was born, how the ENTIRE family filled the waiting-room, how his dad gave him his first bath, how his mother put him to her breast.  We looked at pictures of each family member holding the newly-born Gabriel.  His eyes were glowing and he knew how very much he was loved and wanted.

July 9, 2001

Welcome home, Gabriel

I don't know who was the giver and who was the receiver yesterday.  I believe that I gave Gabriel a gift when I shared these pictures and stories with him.  But my heart was full of the greater gift of having a chance to relive a precious time in the story of MY life with this precious little boy.  Thank you, Gabriel.