The Joy of my Cast Iron Skillet

I mentioned last week that I'm on the launch team for Melanie Shankle's new book. It is called Church of the Small Things.  I started reading it on Monday and by chapter two I had tears coming down my face.  

Chapter two and three share a lot of memories about Melanie's grandparents and I found myself thinking back on all of my memories with my grandparents.  

Melanie shares this...

I've always thought I would love to have one more day with them to ask about their hopes, their dreams, their heartbreaks and disappointments, but I think what I've realized as I've grown older is they probably didn't think much about those things.  Life, for the most part, just was what it was...good and bad.  They lived their lives with a faithfulness and commitment to the small, important things we tend to overlook in the quest to do something grand with our lives, somehow missing the fact that the small things are ultimately the biggest things. 

I reread that section a few times with all of the tears and all of the thoughts about my own grandparents.  My Pa James passed away when I was a sophomore in college and my Grandma passed away this past August.  Both of my Mom's parents are still living.  I have thought a lot in the last several months about my favorite thing I did with my them but I think the best memories I have with my grandparents is just the day in day out stuff.  

Seeing the blackberry stained fingers of my Mema, the volcanoes in my oatmeal with my Grandma, sharing Snickers bars with my Pa James or watching the birds with my Pa Mayford.  All four of them in their own individual ways demonstrated their love in just their normal actions.  Nothing fancy, just living their life as they had always done.  

I'm thankful for my memories and I'm even more thankful that those memories continue to flood my mind.  As I make sausage gravy or fried chicken in my cast iron skillet, I can be reminded that life happens all around me.  Life is the good, the bad and most importantly everything in between.