Today’s guest post on Wednesday Writings is by Beth E. Westcott, a fellow Mantle Rock Publishing author! Thanks for joining me, Beth!
Four years ago my husband and I moved back to the area of New York where we grew up. Except for the occasional visits, we were away for over 40 years.
In 40 years places changed, people changed, I changed. What I remember may not be what exists now. The familiar blends with the unfamiliar
“The department store used to be there.”
“My friend lived there.”
“That was a dairy farm. There were family farms all along this road.”
My mother still lives where I grew up. My room is still there. My mother’s Christmas cactus still blooms profusely. But the old home place has undergone change. The rooms are filled with silent memories.
The hillside w
here we kids sledded is covered with tall evergreens. As a child, I, along with the rest of my family, spent a spring vacation planting tiny, evergreen seedlings. The little brook where my brothers and I waded on hot summer days was claimed by beavers at some time. They built a dam. Now the brook spreads out like a pond. The pastures where cows and sheep grazed are overgrown with trees and shrubs. The old barn is gone, but the silo stands like a sentinel to the past.
It’s the same place, but different. Change is inevitable. We have to learn to let go of the past so we can move on into the future. I think that’s why we create and hold on to traditions: to help us hold on to the good memories and what is good from the past.
Christmas is a time for traditions. Traditions pull generations closer together as we share what we enjoy with one another—cookie decorating, family dinners, special ornaments and decorations, Christmas caroling, or even volunteering to spread cheer in a nursing home or hospital. Each family or group of friends have their own.
I miss the people who are no longer with us, through death, or marriage, or moving away.
Celebrating Christmas is different than it used to be. But when I look at photos, or I sort through boxes of ornaments, good memories make my heart smile. I want to share those memories with the next generation.
As an author I can and do share memories and traditions in my books. My family picked wild strawberries. I remembered the scents as we searched for the little, red berries hidden in the grass along the edge of our clover field and on the hill, and the wild flowers that grew in fields and along the roadside. These are memories I shared in my novel Meadow Song.
Blurb for Meadow Song:
Artist Kate Greenway moves to a new town to escape the memories of her dead fiancé. While painting beside a meadow, she meets a young girl and the girl’s uncle, Jack Chambers. Kate is ready to move forward with her life, but Jack resists commitment. Kate returns home to care for her ill mother. Will she ever fulfill her dreams in art and love? Will Jack overcome his fear and realize that life without Kate will be his greatest loss?
Beth’s Bio:
I grew up in upstate New York, the youngest of seven. Frank and I have been married for 45 years. We worked together in Child Evangelism Fellowship for six years and in the pastoral ministry for 33 years. I’m the mother of three children and grandmother of five granddaughters. I enjoy music, sewing, and gardening, as well as reading and writing. I’ve had church programs and 
devotionals published, and my short story “Sadie and the Princess” is included in Heart-warming Horse Stories on Amazon. My contemporary Christian romance novel, Meadow Song, was published in 2018 by Mantle Rock Publishers.
Get to know Beth and her books by following her website, www.bethewestcott.com !
Leave a Reply