Simple Things

 This weekend we celebrated a special birthday.

This guy turned 91!  My Paw Paw is a special man.  He and my Maw live just a few seconds down the road from my parent's house.  There is a path cut through the woods that makes the trip even shorter, and growing up my sister and I must have made that walk thousands of times.

Paw Paw likes a cup of coffee, reading, growing tomatoes, and going to eat fried fish at the fish house.  He is a natural story teller and loves to laugh, a trait which my dad and I most definitely both inherited.  He is a World War II veteran and vividly remembers his time spent on ships in the Pacific.  He loves my dad and always calls my parent's house to make sure that my dad has made it home safely from work.  And I will never forget the image of him faithfully holding the light while my dad worked on various broken down vehicles late into the night, something he still does to this day.
 
Though I will leave her age a mystery because ladies don't tell, my Maw also recently celebrated a birthday.  She has been a door greeter at Wal-Mart for 27 years, has a sharp sense of humor, and is super smart.  I think she might start Christmas shopping in February, she makes a dang good Sunday roast, and she has an extensive jewelry collection that I always liked to look at when I was young.  Every Christmas Eve she loads my cousins and I down with gifts to give the neighbors across the street before we come back and open our own presents, and there is always room for one more person at her house on Christmas Eve.

LOUD storytelling and LOUD laughing, everyone talking at once, Sunday lunch, Easter egg hunts, hummingbird feeders, a cold can of coke, a twenty dollar bill to help with gas, and a storybook Christmas Eve--these are the things I think of when I think of Maw and Paw Paw's house.  They do not worry much about anything and they absolutely do not meddle, and I think this has kept them young.

Sometimes I have a tendency to make things complicated.  I get worried about what people think, the future, my clothes, my things, or about how 1983 called and wants the bathrooms in my house back--all manner of things that don't matter or that I can't control.  When I think about my Maw and Paw Paw I am reminded about how it's the simple things that matter.  The simple things are what matter to them, and the simple things are what we love about them most.

In my life full of busy and fast, their house is a throw back to a slower time.  It's always the same, always comfortable, and always a place where you can come as you are.  As I sat there tonight I thought about how telling loud stories with family, visiting with cousins, and eating 91st birthday cake is about as good as it gets.  I'm so proud of my Maw and Paw Paw, and I'm so lucky to be their granddaughter.

Happy birthday Paw Paw! We love you!

Whitney