This year, I decided to get an early start on my spring cleaning. To be honest, it's not an early start at all, since this is the first "spring cleaning" I've done in about five years. My motivation came from watching Peter Walsh, author of "Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?" work with people on "Oprah." Although the state of my house isn't nearly as bad as many of those I've seen on the show, and I'm not a shopaholic or a compulsive collector, I also would never be eligible for a "Housekeeper of the Year" award. I find it all too easy to let stuff accumulate until my house is, well, cluttered.
Thus, I found myself going through the hallway cabinets this past weekend, with the goal of getting rid of the things I didn't use and creating more storage space for the items I wanted to keep. Way in the back of the bottom shelf of the cabinet, I ran across something unexpected: the handmade quilt that my grandmother and her friends had created long before I was born. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I want to say that I treasure it, but Peter Walsh's voice echoes in my head. He says that we need to show our respect for the keepsakes that we treasure; finding my grandmother's quilt stuffed in the back of the cabinet certainly isn't respectful.
But finding the quilt - and resolving to display it in a place of honor on my bedroom wall - got me to thinking about the role that we, as women, play in keeping family antiques and heirlooms. And, I began wondering if the hectic pace of our lives and our society's emphasis on discarding the old and embracing the new has weakened our links to the past.
I vividly recall my grandmother, who was born in 1895 and lived to the ripe age of 94, giving me family heirlooms and antiques as Christmas gifts. I have the plate from her wedding cake, as well as antique china that she received as wedding gifts. I keep my recipes in a stout wooden box that my grandfather, who was a bookkeeper, used to store his ledger cards. But, on the whole, most of my family's treasures are either packed away or are otherwise out of sight.
For generation after generation, it has been women who have preserved the legacy of the family, and who have passed down antiques and family heirlooms to their daughters and granddaughters. Carefully wrapped treasures have traveled from household to household, and sometimes from country to country under the direst of circumstances.
While possessions aren't a replacement for the closeness and love of a family, they can be like a chain that travels through time, linking one generation to the next. This weekend, rediscovering my grandmother's quilt made me realize that I needed to honor my lineage and become a better caretaker of my family heirlooms.
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