| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
Teresa Kindred: Oprah and A Big Orange Pot Graduation means no child in the house for the first time in 25 years. Click on headline for complete column plus photo(s) By Teresa Bell Kindred www.nanahood.com After 25 years yesterday was the airing of the last episode of the Oprah Winfrey television show. Everything has a beginning and an end, even Oprah. This Friday night my baby boys, aka the twins, are graduating from high school. For the first time in 25 years I won't have a child in school. Every day for the last few weeks I have been looking at pictures and remembering. Every day for the last few weeks I have shed some tears. Remembering is like walking down a well traveled road, reaching the end and looking back over my shoulder to see where I've been. Where did the years go? It seems like yesterday Bill and I brought Grant and Russell home to join big brothers Justin and Nick and big sis, Rachel. Almost overnight I went from rubbing my nose into the softness of their light brown hair (it always stood straight up) to begging Russell to get a haircut. In the blink of an eye bitty ball turned into varsity ball. Dirty diapers disappeared and were replaced with stinky ball socks and compression shorts. Instead of losing teeth, they were losing car keys. And somewhere along the way they found their best friend, Jesse Jones. Suddenly instead of having twins, I had triplets. Jesse became like another son and when he wasn't at our house it felt like one of my children was missing. I'm not the only mother who has trouble with her children's high school graduation Remember Erma Bombeck? Erma said, "Graduation day is tough for adults. They go to the ceremony as parents. They come home as contemporaries. After years of child-raising, they are unemployed." The only thing Erma forgot to tell us was where moms go to collect unemployment. I told my readers earlier this week that I was going to give a graduation speech on NanaHood. So here it is. It's the story of the orange pot. That's right. A big, heavy, ugly orange pot with a lid and black handle. This pot belonged to my great Aunt Lizzie. Aunt Lizzie was a sweet little old lady who had to be one of the bravest women in the world. I know this because she rode in a car with my Uncle Charlie and he was the worst driver in the world. When Aunt Lizzie died and the older relatives were going through her belongings one my aunts gave me something to remember her by....a big orange pot. I smiled and said "thank you" but truthfully I wasn't impressed. I stuck the pot in a cabinet and forgot about it until one day I needed something large to cook a roast, potatoes and carrots. I remembered the pot and pulled it out from the back of a cabinet, covered with dust. I washed it off and used it for the first time. Something strange happened over the years. Whenever I needed to bake a roast I found that the best pot to cook it in was the ugly orange pot. When someone in the community died and I needed to take food to the family I pulled out the orange pot. Make no mistake, I still think the pot is ugly and I wish it were UK blue instead of Tennessee orange, but I have developed an appreciation for it that I never thought I would . It doesn't match a thing in my kitchen but I no longer care. It's Aunt Lizzie's legacy to me and I appreciate it for what it does, not how it looks. What does this have to do with graduation? Think about it. Every one of us has been given a gift from God. Sometimes we look at our gifts the way I looked at Aunt Lizzie's orange pot. Instead of appreciating it, we wonder why we didn't get something of real value. Or wonder why we didn't get the gift that our neighbor received. High school graduates: You are so young you may may not know what your gifts are yet. That's okay. Right now it's more important to know that you have them than it is to know what those gifts are. God knows what your gift is. Trust him to lead you and you'll figure it out. When you find your gift, don't worry if it isn't flashy or doesn't appear valuable. The value may not be in the gift itself, but in how you use it. Your gift may not make you rich or bring you fame, but if you learn to accept it and to share it with others it may bring you something even better, the joy of a life well lived, happiness, peace, love and friendship. Before I close I want to share an Oprah quote with you (which, by the way, is another lesson. Your words outlive you so be careful what you say). Oprah said, "Your calling isn't something that somebody can tell you about. It's what you feel. It's a part of your life force. It is the thing that gives you juice. The thing that you are supposed to do. And nobody can tell you what that is. You know it inside yourself." My prayer for each and every graduate is that the good Lord will guard you, guide you and keep you in His care. And that when you find your gift (your juice) you will treasure it, but not to the point that you only use it to benefit yourself. Share it with others. Life is a journey filled with discoveries. It is time for you to look ahead. There will be good times. There will be hard times. Lean on your friends and family but look to God for direction. And if anyone gives you a big orange pot for a graduation gift, write them a nice thank you note. You'll need it someday to cook roast in. -Teresa Kindred This story was posted on 2011-05-29 18:38:10
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know.
More articles from topic Commentary:
Dr. Roger D. Smith, DMD: Taxpayers are leery of industry recruiters Rev. Joey N. Welsh: More Birthday Appreciation: Learning From Peter Shaffer The best thing about small towns Posted Downtown Speed Limits vary by point of entry Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Twins, birthdays Pastor Paul A. Fryman: Living to look like Jesus Commentary: The generosity of a small town Guest editorial: Calming Downtown Traffic No signage to East KY 80 from Public Square Would like to see a change in road classification State to City View even more articles in topic Commentary |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
