Passionate through and through...

Throughout our childhood, our Mum was passionate about everything...and she encouraged our passions...
I drew daily...she was passionate about it...
I danced with passion...she always said "whatever we loved to do...she would support"...
She was passionate about nature and being part of it as often as we could...
I am trying to install those passions in our girl's childhood...
Childhood Passions are passed down through generations in our Family...creating wonderful memories.
Thanks Mum...love you.
P.S. This is an old photo of my Mum.

childhood passions

Picking just one passion is hard. I thought and thought then I remember the quilt my mom made for me when I graduated from highschool. It's the perfect representation of things I loved. It is a beautiful hand-crafted piece that tells the story of me - of the things brought me joy: sunbathing, camping, my green hightops, Autumn, iceskating, pottery, chocolate anything, my dog (Beau), my kitty (Matisse), painting, weaving, penpals, photography, and Christmas baking. Yep that about sums me up. In some form or another these things still bring me happiness.

This quilt is on the bed my little niece sleeps in at my parents house. thanks Mom

Childhood Passion...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So many of us had a passion for reading as a child that I will define my passion even further...I had a true passion for all things Louisa May Alcott.  I loved to read even when very young...I can remember pretending to read picture books before I really could... but my true passion started when I first read Little Women...I can remember the first time I read it, maybe I was nine, sitting on the porch of a beach cottage, crying over Beth's death.  Since then I have read this book many, many times as well as every other book LMA wrote.   The books pictured were my mother's and then mine.  I cherish her name in each of them...Because of  Little Women I had to try to read Pilgrim's Progress...which I never could get through...and Dickens's Pickwick Papers...which I loved...and from there to other 19th Century novelists...and on and on.   I so wanted to BE Louisa May Alcott and to write like her...

childhood passion

reminds me of my grandparents... i think my favorite kind as a child was vanilla, same as my grandpa.

Childhood Passion

As a teenager, I enjoyed watching the sun set. It was consistent, lazy, full of God, promising and always there.

and sew it goes

i had many passions as a child - tea parties, barbies, coloring, bicycles and learning embroidery. i wanted to crochet but my fumble fingers could never pick it up. i would sit for hours working on doilies, baby bibs and pillow cases to give as gifts - i wish i had some of them now. i was never brave enough to try a tablecloth. i've picked it back up recently - my stitches are not as neat or as straight...but i have decided that's ok. it's enough for me.

Books

Like so many others, my childhood passion was books and reading.
I kept all of mine.
They are friends that I will never give up.
I learned from them.
I dreamed about them.
I wanted to write them.
I enjoyed them.
I love them still.

A Childhood Passion

Playing marbles in the yard.

Hours and hours spent under the shade of the trees.

A Childhood Passion

I can recall nothing so clearly and vividly from my childhood

as days spent curled up on the couch, surrounded by my treasures

and nights spent curled up under my covers, flashlight in hand

wondering what would happen next

holding my breath

turning a page

whispering

words

words

words

imagining

playing a part

laughing out loud

knowing what would happen next

and reading along anyway, curled under covers, flashlight in hand

as days lazily drifted by, dreaming on the couch, surrounded by my treasures

I created clear and vivid memories of my childhood

A Childhood Passion

I was passionate about art then, and I am still...

I was listening to The Avett Brothers on the way home this afternoon and was struck by the lyrics of the song Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise, and how the words of the chorus seemed to relate to this topic, at least to me, at least in that moment, and maybe to some of you...


"There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it"

How fortunate I was as a child to have parents who supported my interests, my dreams, my passions!

childhood passions

"The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remaining over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves."

~Kahlil Gibran

and whoa, those are some pants...

as a small girl growing up

I was passionate about baby dolls

~~

I loved them and took care of them like they were real babies

~~

I had beds and blankets and bottles

to keep them happy

~~

and

even when I was too old to play with them

I still did

*

i still have some of my baby dolls

and

i could have gotten them out and taken a photo of them

since that's what this blog is all about

but

instead I decided to share this photo

because

I'm guessing i was also passionate about my banana yellow pants

i mean really

who wouldn't be

?

{i'm the one loving on my grandma}

Childhood Passions

As a child, my biggest passion was reading, I could never get enough of words (and still can't for that matter), but I was also passionate about playing teacher (I now home school my kids) and loved playing with kitchen toys and tea sets....especially this one.

These are the only three pieces left to this set brought to me by my aunt when she visited Colorado. I remember hearing her stories of beautiful mountains and snow then receiving this "real" tea set from Santa's Workshop in North Pole, Colorado. I remember thinking how absolutely certain I was that I'd move there one day.....far, far away from this southern heat. I can still see the mental picture of the fairy tale world I envisioned - the snow, the mountains, the villages, the friendly faces living in a perpetual Christmas-world. I love the feeling this little set brings back. I'm so happy to still have these little chipped, re-glued reminders of that particular childhood passion.

Love to read with a friend

I honestly cannot remember having any childhood passion other than reading.  My parents seperated when I was about 8 and later got back together to divorce when I was 12.  I just remember being confused and sad a fair bit.  But I know I loved to read and I loved my friends in our neighbourhood.  I was after all the ring leader of nearly every naughty activity that went on.  Now I love to read and I love my friends, who have changed and are still changing over the years.  I have no old books or toys, the legacy of a divorced family I suppose, so my picture is of the books I still love to read and the friends (she's a stand in ) from years gone by.

a childhood passion...

Teaching a friend how to ride a bike downhill.

Bring it on boys. Let's go off-road.

Childhood passion

Stuffed animals!  Oh these stuffed friends kept me company throughout my childhood.  They were my best friends, confidants, play mates and soul mates. I really believed they were real (even when I was 12).  As an adult, I still love them...and my kids seem to have this passion too.  My oldest has so many in her bed, I am surprised she can sleep in there!  But these stuffed friends provide such comfort and love.  And sometimes it seems only they can understand our deepest fears and sorrows.  

Childhood Passion

I had a few passions as a child, one was always drawing and coloring, painting, anything to do with art.

The most important as a child was collecting rocks, looking for gold, just like in those cowboy movies we used to watch. I remember showing my Dad, look there is this one, and his eyes would get big and he would tell me to go look over there. Now I know it was just to keep me busy and out of his road as he was always working,,,When I got a little older well now my older sister and I could go pick rocks off the field. That was quite an adventure for me. I was always finding ones with different colors, very exciting. After I left the farm I would haul stones to my yard for a path, or around a fountain and my Dad would think I had lost my mind.

I heard him tell my Mom how all those years he has been picking them off the fields and the silly girl is hauling them to the city. When people go on holidays and ask what can I bring you back. I would always say, oh just bring me a rock that you find on the beach, etc.  A few years ago when I got sick I started carving rocks with a handheld dremel. Somedays I was unable to work on them, but the odd day when I had energy I could.

I have to say what a dusty job it was and that one day I blew my dremel up in my hand. I was not hurt, but since then I am not allowed to play with power tools. So this childhood passion continues and in my travels, I still bring home rocks, to me none look the same. I think it is like comparing oranges to apples.

Note to readers, I ate the last apple at lunch!

m u s i c

winding
lifting the lid
notes float to my ear
touching my memories
reminding me of a passion
that has been part of each breath I take

my childhood passion

I'm fairly certain that Timmy Mouse by Miriam Clark Potter (illustrated by Tony Brice, published by Rand McNally) sparked my childhood passion for reading. We didn't have a lot of money when I was a child, and I only remember owning two books...this one and a Rand McNally publication of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And these were probably given to me or one of my sisters as a gift. I remember having these when we lived on the family farm. When I was eight years old, we sold our farm to my brother (he is 20 years older than I) and moved into town.

The greatest discovery of my life was Briggs Public Library in Ironton, Ohio. I went with my friend whose dad took us. I was totally enthralled with the unbelievable notion that I could take as many books as I liked, without charge, and read to my heart's content. In two weeks, I could bring all of them back and start all over again! What a miracle that was to me! Another friend of mine who was a non-reader was a total enigma to me. Her aunt had bought her a whole set of Nancy Drew Mysteries and she never opened one of them! I asked to borrow them and she willingly let me take them home with me. It was supposed to be a permanent arrangement, but her mother found out and made me bring them back. I was devastated, but knowing I could borrow them whenever I pleased brought me consolation.

I went from Nancy Drew to the Hardy Boys and then to Trixie Belden Mysteries. Trixie was like the younger Nancy only more down home. She wasn't cool and sophisticated like Nancy, and I could more easily identify with her character. She lived on Crabapple Farm and her best friend was Honey Wheeler (loved her name) and they belonged to the Bob-White Club.

We moved back to the country when I was starting 7th grade and I no longer had ready access to shelves of books. The county bookmobile became one of my best friends. I would check out twenty books at a time, barely able to carry them to the car.

When I was in eighth grade, my tastes started getting a little more grown-up. Wow! I'll say! I managed to get a copy of Valley of the Dolls by Jacquelin Susann. I got in trouble for showing all the risque passages to my friends at school. My principal "suggested" that it would be inappropriate to bring that particular book to class again. She didn't say anything about Peyton Place though! I had pretty eclectic taste in my reading material. I still read young teen books. I loved Lois Duncan and Ann Head (remember Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones?), Rosamond du Jardin, Betty Cavanna...I could go on, but I'll spare you.

In high school, I was totally obsessed with Gothic Romance novels. Of course Emily Bronte set the standard with Wuthering Heights and Charlotte with Jane Eyre, but at that time in my life I was into more recent authors. I wanted to be that governess in books by Victoria Holt, Dorothy Eden, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Michaels, Mary Stewart. Like most obsessed readers, once I found an author, I read everything by them until the supply was exhausted.

Also during high school, I read every best-seller I could get my hands on and I had a fixation on books about World War II, fiction and non-fiction alike.  I would read until 2:00 a.m on a school night. I think I read every single book in our small school library. In certain classes (with boring, repetitive teachers), I would make a little fortress of my textbooks and read a paperback behind them. Believe it or not, I never got caught and still managed to graduate with honors.

When I was a young mother, I felt tied down, overwhelmed, exhausted and just looking for a little escape from my humdrum life....so I turned to Harlequin Romances. Yikes! I can't believe I'm admitting that, but, hey, don't knock them too much. They were short, easy to read, and they always, always had happy endings. Some of the authors were surprisingly good writers and a few (Barbara Delinsky, Janet Dailey, Nora Roberts, etc.) went on to become mainstream romance writers. Yeah, most of it is formulaic dreck, but they filled a niche in my life and then I got over them.

I still tend to find an author and read everything they've written. Two recent ones have been James Lee Burke who writes the "Dave Robicheaux" mysteries (I got interested in them when we lived in Louisiana where they're set) and Carl Hiassen whose books about southern Florida make me laugh out loud. I couldn't possibly list all the books I've ever read, but I would most likely recognize them if I saw them listed. I don't read as much as I should these days, mainly because I'm on this darned computer too much, but I'm trying to strike a happy medium with less computer time and more reading time. I want to regain my childhood/adult passion.

P.S. My current read is The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian.

P.P.S. This Timmy Mouse isn't my original one. I found this one at Alibris. It's a great source for out-of-print books at reasonable prices.

A Childhood Passion

As a child we think as a child, we play as child, we dream big, sore high, and imagine the impossible.

Children possess the ability to play hard, create, pretend, and discover all things new.

Memories were made….

built from love and the talents of our young minds which were pure at heart.

One of my many childhood passions was playing Chinese Checkers with my Granddaddy Sam. This was something we both loved to do. Hours would go by before we realized it. It was a pastime passion of fun, laughter and competition. This passion was among many which include my drawing set, my paints, playing in the dirt, and Barbie dolls.

Go back to the time when you were younger….a child….and recapture your passion.

What were you infatuated with as a child? Where did your passion lie? What do you remember that was "Oh so very precious" to you?

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child,

I thought as a child…….."  1 Corinthians 13:11 KJV

It’s good to remember our passions…….Please share your childhood passion with us!

@ Heartfelt and Homemade