Anna Marie McCrary Nason – Inventory Blog Two

A common theme in Mama’s house was the color burnt orange and brass. She had these two demi tasse cups sitting with a brass rooster and a ceramic bowl with a burnt orange design on top of an antique table that she got from Mary Frances Hopkins, a dear friend that lived down the street when we lived in the little green house on Eugene Street. That table now sits in my sister, Lindy Weiner’s home in Baton Rouge. She also kept the rooster and ceramic bowl, I believe, while I took the two cups. They are not of value. Mama bought them at my mother-in-law’s gift shop, Ann Metcalf’s, in Baton Rouge. They are from Fritz and Floyd. They go well with my crawfish platter which we also got at the gift shop.

Mama was an excellent seamstress. Not only did she make my wedding dress, but she made my sister’s bride’s maid dress as well. And that Mark and I gave her about six weeks to plan the entire wedding, it was a tall order, but she finished both quickly. The piping on the sleeve and the handsewn buttons on the back bodice were the only tedious parts. The buttons were just adornment sew on top of the zipper flap. But from the back it looked as though they were real. While she sewed the dresses, I sewed my going away outfit, a two-piece pants suit, white waffle pique jacket dress and bell-bottom pants. Underneath I wore a long-sleeve brown dotted Swiss blouse which I bought at a little boutique.

She was known for sewing the white and navy-blue pleated skirts that were the uniform for the girls at St. Joseph’s Academy in Baton Rouge. She made them in bulk for a local dress shop who paid her for the work. She made extra money by making, mending, and hemming the green uniform that the BRHS Boosters wore when they marched on the field at football game halftime. And then when I was in elementary school, Walnut Hills Elementary had a fall bazaar in which she dressed small plastic dolls in evening gowns. They were donated and sold to raise money for the school. Each was different and all beautiful and treasured. My doll’s evening gown was blue sateen.

When she wasn’t sewing, she was needlepointing. I took these birds she made and had them framed soon after she died in 1991. She had finished the design but ran out of time to get framed. 

She also crocheted afghans. This one hanging in the front of an antique quilt top and bed coverlet, was not finished when she died. But I had all the yarn and so completed it. I love covering myself with it when I take naps in the cool afternoons. But it was her crewel embroidery patterns that I treasured.

I think I found at least ten projects she had started most were crewel, some were cross stitched, and others were others forms of needlepoint, like petit-point using tiny stitches. This pillow she embroidered was never actually made into a pillow. I just slipped it on a pillow form but didn’t sew it closed. Not sure why. I just never got around to doing it. It sits on the day bed in my guest bedroom/office.

Mama loved brass accessories. This brass frame is not only ornate but heavy. I believe it belonged to her mother Claudia McCrary as I vaguely remember seeing it on the mantel in her home on Blouin Avenue in Baton Rouge. When Claudie got sick with the cancer and she and Papa moved into the apartment upstairs from the Mama and Daddy, a lot of their furniture eventually found a home in my parent’s apartment. I remember it sitting on what Jennifer affectionately calls “Jack’s” table because after he moved into the nursing homes, Lindy had the table, and she gave it to Jennifer who remembered it in her grandfather’s apartment. It’s a beautiful heavy walnut cabinet with an even prettier marble top. The brass frame sat on that table when my parents had it in their home. Today, it sits on the bed table on Mark’s side of the bed in our bedroom. He wanted a picture of Hayden, and we slipped this one of him when he was very young. It makes him smile to see that sweet precious face of his only grandson.

Another piece of brass that Mama loved was her tea and coffee service that she got also at Ann Metcalf Gifts. Owned by Mark’s mother and father, it was a beautiful gift shop in Baton Rouge that first opened on Perkins Road not far from our house on Eugene Street in South Baton Rouge. Later, just before I met Mark, they closed that store and moved to the Twin Cedars Shopping Center on Jefferson Highway. This was a very high-end area of town with fast growing expensive large neighborhoods. Still the university area and South Baton Rouge customers followed them and everyone who knew Ralph and Annie Ruth loved them. After Mama died much of what they had Daddy said for us kids to take. I ended up with this tea service and have treasured it always. It has been on top of my piano (more on that later), my coffee tables, the mantle over the fireplace, and inside my beautiful china cabinet (more on that later, too.) It takes a lot of polishing to stay shiny and pretty, but worth it. The tray is fragile and did not come with the tea set, but she bought them together and was very proud of this piece of brass. 

Anna Marie McCrary Nason – Gifts From the Past - One

 

Mama liked to collect things and I inherited a lot. I’m glad I did. Every piece has been a special part of my life as wife, mother, and grandmother. The two pottery jars were in her kitchen on Jefferson Hwy. She and Daddy moved there after they sold the white house on Eugene Street in 1970, a month or so after I married. There are no markings on the Kitchen String jar. It was new when Mama bought it. The crock pot jar is real and old. It has the number 150 hand printed on the bottom. It could mean it was the potters 150^th jar or could be 1.50 cost.

It was a beautiful apartment with a large living room with sliding doors out to a brick patio surrounded by a brick privacy wall on three sides. A galley kitchen and small dining room were next to the living room. There was a large opening at the dining room and a smaller opeing at the other of the kitchen which led down the hallway to the two bedrooms and two bathrooms. A little table, a wooden rocking chair that belonged to Daddy's grandmother, and a stool stood at the end of the kitchen. Above them was a wooden shelf that Mama had decoratd in the farmhouse style of today. She was always ahead of herself in designs. Her niece, my cousin, Amy Weiner Barham has that shelf and some of the other things that were on it in her kitchen now. 

The telephone was on the wall just inside the door of the kitchen at the hallway side. She would sit in the kitchen and drink her coffee and talk on the phone or sit there when daddy was cooking his famous rump roast recipe or make a batch of fudge.

I can remember seeing the shelf and assorted things in all the other houses she and Daddy lived in until they actually moved back into the same apartment in late 1980’s, where she died in 1991.

My parents were going to elope. They started dating at LSU when my father returned from WWII and picked back up with his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers. His best friend, Buddy Mundinger, a Kappa Alpha, was dating Joyce Quinn who was Mama’s best friend. They put the two together and it was love at first sight, at least for my father. Mama was deeply in love with her high school sweetheart, but she broke his heart when Daddy started pursuing her. Her parents never liked her boyfriend and were thrilled that Daddy came into the picture. I do believe they were in loved when they married.

The day they were to elope to the courthouse, enough family found out and a wedding at St. James Episcopal Church was set. This was the Nason family home church and Fr. Phillip P. Werlein married them. (He also Christened me in 1950.)

They didn’t have any money to speak of. It was December 12, 1948. But Mama wanted to collect a set of fine china and so picked out one. Unfortunately, they only got one dinner plate, Castleton China, made in the USA, “Devon.” The first time I saw this plate it was in the kitchen cabinet of the butler’s pantry at the white house on Eugene Street. I was about 11 years old. After Mama died, I picked it out of her things to keep and it has always had a home in my china cabinets. Today, it sits on a wooden shelf in my kitchen which ties in perfectly with the blue theme we have going in there. I sometimes wish I had tried to collect more to have at least four place settings. But that might be too late. Maybe whomever ends up with the plate will try to complete the setting.

9/4/21 

365 Days! I did it!

On December 29, 2016, I challenged myself to meditate at least once a day for 365 consecutive days.

 

The challenge came from the APP on my phone called Insight Timer, which I had downloaded onto my phone in October 2013. Since that day I have meditated 689 days.

In 2016, the 365 day challenge was put into place and I accepted the challenge. I have the option of using a timer, a guided meditation, ambiance music or simple sounds of nature, among many other options. I have meditated in airports, while camping with my Girl Scout troop, on my back porch, by my fireplace in my living room, in the car traveling, at parks, and walking along greenbelts. I wake early so not to disturb my daily routine and use my earbuds to focus on the messages or music. My back porch is by far my favorite place as I feel a connection to all that is nestled among my herbs, candles, artifacts, and the sounds (and sometimes smell) of nature surrounding me.

The view from my back porch.

One of my guided meditations ends by guaranteeing that if I do this or some other form of meditation for ten consecutive days it will change my life. And it did! I asked myself, how would 365 consecutive days of meditating change my life?

Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones writes in The Art of Being, “Discipline gives focus and direction to our energy of intention, which in turn unleashes the genius.” Here is how my life has changed since I accepted this challenge.  For one, I go through the day thinking. I know that thoughts become things, so I exercise discernment over that which I allow myself to think, speak and believe. It’s called right thinking.

I also have a day of constant prayer because I believe that our thoughts are prayers. Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh writes, “Every moment is a gift of life.” And through my daily meditation practice I have come to understand and appreciate the importance of mindfulness, which is the capacity to recognize what is happening in each moment.

Because I take the time to listen every day to the sweet inner wisdom of my soul, I come away feeling loved, happy, at peace and filled with joy for I am in the presence of pure being.  Jesus said it best, “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, I in you.” (John 14:20)

On to the next 365 Days!

Namaste

A Day in the Life with Autism - Limitless Faith

Today, Lexi and I had a lesson in limitless faith.  My blessing each morning is to drive Emery Kate and Lexi to school.  First we drop off Lexi at her school then EK at the primary school.  This morning the girls were busy packing to go spend the weekend with their father.

Even typical children need routines and consistency in their lives.  But the need is greater and magnified with an atypical child with Autism.  To stay on task I use five minute warnings. This morning was no different than usual except for the packing which their mother had told them as she left for work to finish the packing after school. When we were five minutes from leaving Lexi could not find her extra hair brush and refused to unpack her good brush.  Time was passing and she became more and more frustrated and began to have a meltdown.  Emery Kate whispered in my ear and asked if Mark could take her to school so she wouldn’t be late.  He did and Lexi decided after they left that she would not go to school.

So I did the only thing I could and called her mother. Between the two of us, she coaching me what and how to get Lexi calmer, we convinced her to go to school.  Now there was the chance she would be tardy and that would trigger a whole other meltdown. Jennifer called her school and explained that we coming but might be late, mark her tardy if need be, but please don’t tell Lexi. She also talked with Lexi’s special needs teacher, Mrs. Dent to give her a heads up on Lexi’s state of mind.

Driving to school we were in a lot of traffic.  Behind the school in the carpool line, the PTO president at Lexi’s school, who works every day tirelessly volunteering at the elementary school, was in front of me.  She was turning left to drop her youngest off at the Primary school.  Not one person yielded to her letting her go in front of them.  We waiting car after car as Lexi got more and more anxious. I told her I was sorry for how things went this morning and that I loved her to the moon and back.  I said I would see her later when I got back to the school to volunteer and asked her if she was going to speech.  She said not on Fridays, but that she would find me.

We turned the corner in front of the school, the last car in line.  It was 7:59.  And there standing to Dr. McCrary, the principal, who always greets the children is Mrs. Dent.  They wave to Lexi, open the car door for her and greet her with great smiles.  She’s the last one on time and she is happy.  My heart overflows with gratitude for their response. I call my daughter and tell her we made it and I can’t stop crying.  How does a sweet kind little girl go from being happy and excited about visiting her dad this weekend to angry and frustrating in a matter of seconds because of a hair brush?  The question is rhetorical as there is no answer.  It just is part of living a life with Autism.

I can’t see through Lexi’s eyes or begin to understand her world.  I can remember that deep inside each of us is an inner wisdom and divine essence permeating in and around us.  It is limitless.  When I look inside those beautiful eyes I don’t see the Autism.  I see love; knowing that when I say, “I love you Lexi,” and she responds, “I’ll find you, ” we are saying the same thing.

~Mimi

Me Too - Lexi

I had the pleasure of driving with Lexi to the Chattanooga Autism Center Walk 2016 this weekend.  By ourselves in the car I knew that “Tween Music” on my Pandora would make the drive easier for her as riding in a car has never been fun for her.  She knows all the words to all the songs and when Meghan Trainor’s song “Me Too” came on Lexi asked me to turn it up.  The tune is fun to listen to.  The song is about her, I assume, and the life and times of a pop star.  Yes, it sounds a bit conceited but then it probably is pretty accurate of her life.  But it was the chorus that struck me and which Lexi loved the most.  It goes like this:

“I thank God every day (uh huh)
That I woke up feelin' this way (uh huh)
And I can't help lovin' myself
And I don't need nobody else, nuh uh”

Wow.  Powerful words for anyone to believe in.  But that Lexi is a child with Autism and wakes up every day loving herself is beautiful.  I learned this weekend that 1 girl in 189 girls are affected by Autism.  That statistic surprised me more than I can say.  I’m not sure why.  We knew from day one that Lexi was different but a diagnosis didn’t come until she was 6 years old.  Until I learned the facts about Autism, I was like every other person who judges children who are different without knowing all the facts.  Thanks to the awareness I am learning every day through the CAC, I feel more confident that I’m not judging anymore.

When Lexi asked me to turn up the song when it got to the chorus, I did it.  To sing out with joy that she is happy, confident, loves herself and thanks God for it every day; that’s all I need to know that she is on the right path and will succeed in whatever life brings her.  Her gratitude for all who participated at the walk and/or made a donation was sincere.  Her huge bear hug and genuine “thank you” she gave everyone as they left our home after the Walk, said it all.

As for me, I thank God every day for all my grandchildren and their love for each other.  I thank God every day for my family and friends who supported the Walk by sending money, prayers, and good wishes; who called, cheered us on, and sent messages of love.  It’s not about the money as much it is about the Love. 

Jesus My Jesus

I'm beginning a study on "Lessons From Jesus" by the Unity Church.

Day One:

              It was my job to get it right the first time so that my little brother and sister did so as well.  If I messed up, they got punished even if they hadn’t done anything wrong.  I grew up thinking this just wasn’t fair.  Of course, I was five years old and my parents weren’t punishing my siblings because of any wrong I had made.  This was just how I thought things were or something I had perceived without understanding all the facts.

                In truth, my parents were at times unstable and made harsh decisions about me and my brother and sister, but not one of us made it happen to the other.  And how “good” or “bad” I was at any given moment, did not determine how the others were treated.

 My parents took us to church and Sunday school sometimes.  Always on Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve, but in between was sporadic at best.  By the time I was ten we were members of a new church and both parents became involved.  My dad served on the vestry and my mother taught Sunday school.  My teacher was the tallest man I ever met and my dad’s best friend.  He had a very soft gentle voice, a delightful sense of humor, and a stern sense of right and wrong which I grew up respecting. As my Sunday school teacher I listened carefully and paid a great deal of attention to detail, hanging on every word from his mouth.

When he talked about Jesus, I was amazed and enthralled and confused.  The Jesus of my youth was the shepherd and kind storyteller that my grandmother spoke of.  She had taught us “Jesus Loves Me” and I knew it was true because my grandmother was the smartest person in the world.  But in my middle school years, I saw Jesus through the eyes of my teacher.  I saw him as my savior and the son of God.  I realize now that is when I began my life of thinking that not only was Jesus something apart from me but also was God.  After all, I was just a sinner and not worth dying for, but now I had to live my life the “right” way to pay Jesus back and if I was lucky when I died, I might get to see God.

For many years after that, I lived the life that my parents hoped I would live, raising my own children in a Christian home with the same values I grew up with.  It wasn’t until after they were in their teens and college ages that I came to realize that I might just have misinterpreted some of the things I had been taught and then passed on to the classes I taught and my children. 

I came to realize there is a difference between the truth and the Truth.  And it all depends on your perspective; looking from a literal sense or figuratively.  But always Jesus was the focus and part of my being.  Rev. Paula Mekdeci writes, “We each create a composite view of Jesus that is personal to us and evolutionary. It shifts and changes as we learn and grow. We may come to see Jesus as our Way Shower, Master Teacher, Savior, Elder Brother, beloved friend, rabbi, faith healer, zealot, Holy Comforter, or some combination thereof. We each choose the concept of Jesus that inspires and resonates with us—the one that serves us best where we are on our spiritual path.”

Today, I agree with Rev. Mekdeci’s words, “My Jesus is not the same as your Jesus, nor does it need to be. In the context of Christianity, the important thing is: Do you have a concept of Jesus that serves your spiritual growth—one that helps you become more loving, more aware, more open-minded? Does it inspire you to serve others and the world? Does it help you to know God? The answer for me is a definitive “yes.”

I give thanks for my grandmother’s gentle love, my parents’ desire to lead me to God through Jesus and the church, to my dad’s dear friend who loved teaching us and introducing us to the Christ, and finally to all the times I found myself seeking and then finding the answers I already knew, that Jesus found his way to God and only wanted me to do so as well and once I did, I found the Christ consciousness inside me that guides me and “Loves me, this I know.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Sunday in Lent- 2016 – Imagination

Imagination is the ability to image, picture, conceptualize, envision, and dream. In order to change conditions in our mind, body and affairs, we must first transform the pictures we are holding in mind.  If we don’t like the conditions we are attracting, we can change them by building new images with the eye of mind, our faculty of imagination. We imagine the life we desire and focus our thoughts and actions to bring it into manifestation.  

When I think of the word imagination, the first the first things I think of are dreams, imaginings, or made up things.  But it is much more than that.  It is also using our minds to create realities.  This year my Cadettes (6^th graders) in my Girl Scout Troop are working on an anti-bullying patch called the BFF Patch (Be a Friend First). The goal is to help them feel safe in school, online and everywhere in between; build confidence to deal with mean girls and cliques; and develop healthy, positive relationships.

For their homework (because we don’t have enough time during the meetings), I’m asking them to consider what the world would look like if all girls treated one another with kindness and respect and no one was bullied – at school, online, or out in the world.  They love making videos on their phone; so I want them to create a public-service announcement (PSA) video that tells us what that world could look like and how we can get there.

This is going to take imagination and they will have to reach deep down into their consciousness by answering some serious questions about what bullying is before they can create their videos.  I think they are up for it.  After all they are Girl Scouts and say at each meeting the Girl Scout Promise and Law.  They have the training and qualities to be resourceful and creative.

GIRL SCOUT PROMISE:

 

On my honor, I will try:

to serve God and my country

to help people at all times,

and to live by the Girl Scout Law.

THE GIRL SCOUT LAW:

I will do my best to be,

honest and fair,

friendly and helpful,

considerate and caring

courageous and strong, and

responsible for what I say and do

and to respect myself and others,

respect authority

use resources wisely,

make the world a better place, and

be a sister to every other Girl Scout.

 

This is my 24^th year as a Girl Scout.  My life would not be the same if I had not been a part of the Girl Scouting experience.  When I was young girl growing up, it was the one constant that kept me strong.  As a teenager and young adult I never imagined that I would accomplish so much including earning the highest award at the time, The First Class. Later as a young mother, I enjoyed being my own daughter’s Girl Scout leader and now I’m in my sixth year as my granddaughter’s leader.  Using creative and imaginative ways I serve my highest good and that of others.

“Long live Girl Scouts.” ~ Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts, 1912