Lessons You Learn

I have always been one of those people who shared any lesson that I learned with others. I learned early on in life that if something confused me it probably confused, at least one other person. You remember how some of us used to be. We would be sitting in a learning situation of some sort or another and would not ask a question because we did not want to feel uninformed or "look dumb." Y'all know what I am talking about.

Now, I realize that anything that the Lord allows me to learn is for the good of myself and for the good of my fellowman. Therefore, I share. That is why I do a daily blog. Jesus taught me to share when He taught me to care. Now you know why I sign my blog, "Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care." 

As I am doing my meditating each morning and as I live each day, my mind is like a sponge soaking up lessons to use for my blog. If something astounds me, then in some way it will sooner or later be featured in my blog. Yesterday and the day before, I did my blog on snippets of my Momma's life. But, I was not satisfied with the cap that I put on it so, I thought that I would add a couple of things to it via the way it impacted me. 

Here is a verse from a poem that I wrote in memory of my Momma back in 2016:

$35 dollars a week is not very much

That is what the lady lived on

And she took care of three kids, with such

Meager earnings as this - 

Life in her household was anything but bliss.

********

I think back at various times in my life and I see where I get my resilience from and my perseverance. Look at the lesson that the Lord allowed me to learn through my Momma:

• She made most of my clothes. And she cut some of her old dresses down to fit me. 


• She made my slips from the twenty-five-pound flour sack that she bought the flour in. She dumped the flour up in a lard can and voile, she had material to make me a slip.


• We had a container for meal as well. We did not keep meal in as large a quantity because sometimes the meal would go bad and have those little black bugs crawling in it, weevils I think. Anyway, that batch had to be used. I just had to sift the weevils out and keep stepping.


• Fatback was bought for frying as breakfast meat and boiling meat for seasoning the dried beans that we would have nearly every day. The fatback had to be boiled first to rid it of the excess salt that it was packed in. Then that water was poured off and it was fried. Oh, such popping there was as the last of the water was fried off of the fatback. When the fatback was fried, it tasted just like the chicharrones that you can buy in packages in the potato chip aisle at the grocery store. Uhm-Uhm, such good crunching there was! I never really cared for the boiled fatback though, so I would cut the skin off and eat that. It was quite tasty, too. 


• She never wasted anything. She used everything until it was used up.

My Point

Why did I tell you all of this about my early life and growing up years in my Momma's household? Simple, we are leaving a legacy daily. Are we teaching our children how to make do? If you don't do anything but tell them stories of how it was done, do that. Better yet, write it down. That is what I am doing. I am writing down how my Momma had the grit, determination, and faith to keep going. And you know what? She got to accomplish her goal of seeing her daughter settled in a fine job as a teacher. She got the chance to see her dream realized through me, as well as make sure that I was able to stand on my own two feet, with the help of God,  if my situation in life should change for whatever reason. And I have shared her legacy with you for yours... 

Be blessed.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma L. Carr-Jones

Christian Author and Poet