Page 33 - Dash Inspirations by Linda Ellis

Boxes
I started cleaning out a back closet one day, and on the top rack, I found three large boxes. I recognized them instantly and drew in a deep breath as I brought them down from the shelf where they’d spent the last five years undisturbed. I carefully pulled back the tape that I distinctly remembered applying on the day I brought these boxes home. I recalled the tears that fell under the strips of tape as I pressed them slowly along the corners and seams of each box to securely hold them together until I was ready to open them again and, with a clearer mind, inspect their contents. I thought how ironic it was that this product was called “masking tape” as I had certainly tried to “mask” my feelings that day by attempting, unsuccessfully, to seal my hurt and pain inside each box.
I opened the first box and began to carefully sift through the black and white photos, documents, and papers. I glanced at my father’s passport, some silver dollars and lapel pins from his employer marking ten and twenty-year milestones. I found an old fishing license, some bills, receipts, birthday cards, and letters.
I stared intently at a photo I’d taken of him about a month before he passed away. I asked myself how it happened that seventy-four years of walking this earth could eventually be contained within three boxes. Then, it occurred to me, that what my father had actually left behind was so much more than anyone could place in any box. Even if it were possible: if love, guidance, support, and protection were tangible items, there could never be a box enormous enough to house all that he had left for us.
The items in these boxes contained a paper trail that began in 1930 and ended in 2004. From their contents, anyone who hadn’t known him would be able to ascertain his financial status, how many children he had, where he had traveled, different residences throughout his life, but not what truly made him the man he was.
I realized that what was in these boxes didn’t truly matter. What mattered most in my father’s legacy were the things I still carry with me every day: the life lessons I still hear in his words repeated in my mind, the respect he demanded I show others, the love and affection I feel free to give my children, the humor I find even in the most difficult situations and the empathy for others I feel in my heart.
Dash Inspirations by Linda Ellis www.LindaEllis.life
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