das Andenken

We were inside on a muggy summer day. Took a bit longer than I thought it would for that little girl to be overwhelmed by curiosity. "Whatcha doin' in the closet?"

"I'm looking for artefacts."

"Oh! Can I look, too?"

"Do you know what artefacts are?"

"Yep. Things made a long, long time ago." She stood there grinning.

I told you ~ she really is as sharp as a tack!

"Well," I explained, "in this case, the things aren't all that old. They're from when I was about your age." She gave me the look ~ the one that adults are given by children at times like this.

"Humph! Help me find a little red suitcase. It has stickers on it."

Moments later I heard, "Oh! What's this?" She was holding my old hiking cane. The natural chestnut gleamed softly. "There it is!" I said. Both of our faces were aglow ~ mine with adventures remembered and hers with adventures yet to be imagined and embarked upon.

"What are these little metal shield things?"

I smiled. "They're tokens of some of the places I have been."

"Like souvenirs?"

"Hmm. More like keepsakes, I think."

Her forehead wrinkled as she studied each hand-hammered, painted, lacquered brass token tacked from the curved handle halfway down the front of the wandering stick. Not a spot of rust I saw. Then she pointed to one, "what kind of place is that?" So we sat there in the closet and talked about travelling, about home, about asking questions, and about searching for answers.

And then we stepped through the door and she took her first walk in the world together with an old touring cane in hand.