Jackson Browne and My Tangled Necklaces

Yesterday I sat on my bed and spent at least an hour struggling to untangle three fine chains that had knotted themselves over and around each other.

(Note to self: don't store necklaces together and then ship them across the world again.)

As I sat there, I thought of Jackson Browne's lyric that says--

"... maybe we've found what we had lost when we've unwound so many crossed and tangled misunderstandings..."

How knotted relationships can become. How much work to untangle the misunderstanding.

A toothpick finally helped me loosen and untie some of the knots in the chains.

I've found that forgiveness does the same for the other knots.

The necklaces hang free now on pretty hooks by my dresser.

Nice. I feel inspired.

Treasures in Old Boxes

Yesterday Trevor was cleaning out when he came across something that he deemed a treasure.

"Look at this T-Shirt!" he yelled as he burst into the office.
"Isn't it AWESOME?!"

There he was, holding up my ancient Jackson Browne shirt. And it really is ancient. My friend Loren made it for me when I was 16 or 17. The guy I was seeing at the time was not very amused that some other guy was making gifts for me, but I was! Loren was a good friend :-)

I'm not really sure where all that shirt has been over the last 25 years but I wouldn't have known it was in a basket somewhere in the attic here. I promise, I don't usually haul old t-shirts all over the world. And this one looks like it has seen better days. No holes--that's good. Silkscreening still in good shape--that's good. But stained? Oh my! The whole thing looks kind of beige now from many small stains smearing into one.

But Trevor was absolutely taken with it. He says he's going to wear it at his next gig. I'm hoping I can get it off of him to wash it before that.

What we pass on to our kids can be so random and weird, some of it embarrassing or even detrimental.

I must say that I'm proud to have passed on to Trevor a passion for the music of Mr. Browne.