I Love my Aunt Effie, but she was not good with Small Children. She did not Trust them. Small Children were too unpredictable, too uncontrollable. Small Children were too much uncontrolled and unpredictable Movement.
Aunt Effie liked her things to be nice and neat and in their place. And Small Children, given time, refused to be kept where she put them.
Aunt Effie was great with Teenagers who could be Reasoned with and Bribed into more controlled and predictable behaviors and placement. But, it was known throughout the Family that she only tolerated Small Children in her perfectly ordered Home.
Aunt Effie dearly Loved all of her grandchildren, nieces and nephews, but she preferred to have them outside playing and making their uncontrolled and unpredictable Noises and Movements elsewhere.
Aunt Effie was all about the Physical Science and Physics of the Perfect Home, and Small Children were Free Radicals best left to the vagaries of the Natural World when it came to their propensities of uncontrolled and unpredictable Noise and Movement.
When I was a Small Child, I was always fascinated and intrigued by one particular Room in Aunt Effie and Uncle John’s Perfect Home which was always Off-Bounds. Never to be entered by a Small Child.
So, of course, I was always Curious about what was behind that particular Off-Bounds Room’s heavy oak door. Every time we visited Aunt Effie and Uncle John it niggled at me.
One day, my Little Sister and I found ourselves being Baby-Sat by Aunt Effie and Uncle John while Mama and Daddy were off doing something obviously Off-Bounds to Small Children. They had flown away to New York City to play and be Free Radicals themselves for short while.
So, my Little Sister and I, who were used to being Free Radicals almost all of the time, except in Church or when we were in any other Public situations which warranted Very Good Manners, had to be retrained by Aunt Effie to be Still and Well Placed.
It was a tortuous experience, but we bore it because we Loved Aunt Effie and Uncle John, and had been taught to be Well Mannered and Respectful Small Children (even though we were Free Range Radicals at Heart, and preferred to run about wild and free exploring and playing). Oh well (sigh).
One day, during the odious Nap Time Aunt Effie always put us down for, for what seemed like days and days, when it was actually only for two very long and trying hours, because I was never good at taking Naps. I had too much to See, and too much I wanted to Do.
Anyways, on that One Day during our dreary Nap Time, I made sure that my Little Sister was asleep, and I slipped out of the guest room to visit the Mysterious Off-Bounds Room.
Aunt Effie was Napping, as well. It appeared that Babysitting Small Children within her Perfect Home was very trying on her, too. And I knew that Uncle John was off checking on some of their rental properties around town. So, I tip-toed, bare-footed down the long, darkened, hard-wood upstairs hallway to the closed door of the Mysterious Off-Bounds Room.
I carefully and slowly cracked the door open and peeped inside. I was astounded !
The Mysterious Off-Bounds Room was filled with Dancing Rainbow Light Patterns.
I opened the door and eased in very quietly all of the way into the Mysterious Off-Bounds Room. I stood very Still (Aunt Effie would have been very proud of me) drinking in all of the Beautiful and Wondrous Rainbow Light Patterns bobbing around on everything from ceiling to floor.
Aunt Effie had several Tiffany desk lamps and standing lamps scattered perfectly throughout the room. Each lamp’s stained glass shade was fringed with luminous Crystals capturing the sunlight coming in through the many windows surrounding the Mysterious Off-Bounds Room.
Crystals that filled the Mysterious Off-Bounds Room and all of its antique furnishings and figurines with beautiful Dancing Rainbows of various shapes and sizes. Some of the Rainbow Light Patterns even intertwined with one another like a picture of DNA I had seen in one of my Science books at school.
I was Mesmerized. I was filled with Wonder.
Suddenly, afraid of getting caught, and not wanting to rudely disappoint Aunt Effie, I left the Wonderful Mysterious Off-Bounds Room, and returned to the Nap Time Room. I lay down ever so carefully, so as not to awaken my sleeping Little Sister, and preoccupied myself with re-visualizing the unexpected Wonder and Beauty I had just experienced. I promised myself that I would never forget it.
However, years passed, and life got busy, as it always does, and that Rainbow Memory faded away into Past tense.
During the holidays one year, when my Three Sisters and I were grown-ups visiting our Mama at her new octagonally-shaped, two-story, Home in the Woods, we all decided to take a historical tour through some of America’s southeastern states.
One of the old historical hotels we stayed at in Jefferson, Texas along the Red River, had been built in the 1800’s, and was famous for having some very active Ghosts. Oooo !
One Ghost, in particular, a dashing Confederate Captain, was known to wander about through the old hotel’s hallways and rooms at night. Some supposed that he was seeking his beautiful paramour, who was also said to be seen floating around the old hotel in her long flowing white gown from time to time. Some folks, made claims in the hotel’s brochure, that they had actually heard the two of them speaking.
My twelve year old Youngest Nephew was especially interested in tracking the Confederate Captain down, and chatting with him. So, I promised my Youngest Nephew that I would stay up all night long with him quietly wandering the hotel’s hallways in search of the Ghostly Captain.
After all, the Confederate Captain was described as dashing, and the old tin-type photo of him in the hotel’s brochure attested to that fact. So, why not ? A Ghost Hunting we would go !
The old southern mansion, that been converted into a Hotel, was filled with mysterious and spooky creaks and groans, but the Confederate Captain, nor his floating paramour ever materialized.
However, my Youngest Nephew and I had a lot of fun making up jokes about Ghosts, what we would do if we ever really saw a Ghost, our jumpiness over the hotel’s grumbling old house noises all evening, and discussing the Civil War and the Slave Trade Economy of the South during the latter 1800’s.
No wonder the Ghosts never materialized !
Throughout our sleepless wanderings in search of a Ghostly Adventure, I learned that my Youngest Nephew was brighter and funnier than I had originally thought, and he learned that his Aunt could be a real Chatter Box especially when hyped up on too many granola bars and fruity trail mix.
The following day was a Rainy Day, and all of us were scheduled for a Steamboat ride down (or was that up ?) the Red River later in the afternoon. So, we all decided to spend our time perusing the Art and Antique Shops all along and around Jefferson city’s town square.
Being All Weather Folks, we grabbed our umbrellas and coats and walked to the nearby City Square clucking and laughing about Ghost Detectives, the after effects of too many granola bars and fruity trail mix, and our next planned Great Adventures.
The rain came and went in gentle and raucous spurts and outbursts as we wandered and scurried from one colorful and interesting shop to another. Every now and then the sun would peek out from behind the gray clouds lining them in a shimmering silver halo, and making the cold, damp day a little less cold and damp.
Opening the heavy doors to another Antique Shop, all of us entered and cheerfully greeted the bald, heavily bearded gentleman behind the counter.
He mumbled a greeting back, and let us know that we would get his full attention should we need anything.
While Oooing and Aaahing this antique or that, the sun came out again, and for a brief Moment one whole side of the large, antique crowded room was filled with glorious Dancing Rainbow Light Patterns.
The Past Small Child Memory inside me sprang to Life and Light, and fused with my Present Adult form. “Y’all look at all of the Dancing Rainbows”, I heard myself saying.
My Eyes immediately searched out the Origin of the bobbing Dancing Rainbow Light Patterns, while Mama and my Three Sisters and my Youngest Nephew Oooed and Aaahed over the brilliantly colorful Light Wonders.
Finally, I spotted a large string of dangling Crystals hanging directly in front of the Antique Shop’s big glass front display window. Walking quickly over to the String of Crystals of all shapes and sizes, I looked for the price tags and stickers. Each Crystal ranged from a dollar to one dollar and seventy-five cents in cost. I could not believe my good luck.
I bought the String of Crystals. All fifty-two of them. My head abuzz with all of the Artistic Mountings I would create and carve for them, in order for them to Create their Light and Dance Rainbow Magic for everyone who entered my Home. No Mysterious Off-Bounds Rooms for me. Everybody would be welcome to be a part of their Moving Wonder and Beauty.
I discovered from the bald, heavily bearded owner of the antique shop that they had all been Left-overs from Broken antique lamps. And that was why he had priced them so low.
In his Eyes, they had very little Value.
To my eyes, each and every Crystal held immeasurable Value and Beauty.
Life and Memories are funny things. They are like Spiraling Cosmological Light Rainbows. Reach out to grab them or take hold of them and they just become an ever moving and changing ethereal and physical Part of you. And you become a Color-filled and Dancing Moving part of them.
When Awareness and Acknowledgement of Past, Present and Future Moments of Emotional Light and Life Memory get simultaneously stimulated and the Past adds varying Spectrums and Shapes of Color and Light to the Present. The Present adds varying Spectrums and Shapes of Color and Light to the Future.
How Beautiful ! How Wondrous ! How Sustaining !
Aunt Effie and Uncle John passed away several years ago. But they are very much alive in the Spectral Crystal Rainbow Light Memories of my Life. They are both now experiencing what it is like to be truly and fully Energetically Free Radicals.
I Love you Aunt Effie and Uncle John ! EnJoy !