Questions to Ponder
Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy
“Grandmothers are voices of the past and role models of the present. Grandmothers open the doors to the future.” – Helen Ketchum
- Carrie Landgraf’s delightful historical novel, The Stuart Spoon, is about an heirloom which set the author on a quest to unlock its mystery. It revealed a poignant chapter in her grandmother’s past, and a surprising connection with the present.
Do you have an heirloom that was once your grandmother’s? What stories do you know about it? Have you thought about who might be its next keeper?
- Did you know your mother’s mother? What was her first name? Her maiden name? What stories do you remember? Did you know your mother’s grandmother? What was her name? What stories do you know about her?
- Have you noticed patterns in the stories told about the women in your motherline? Are there similar traits you recognize in these women?
- “You have been born into circumstances beyond your control,” wrote Jerry Sittser in A Grace Revealed, “inherited opportunities and problems passed on through gene pool and family background and life experiences, and faced losses you did not choose.” Can you relate to his statement? In what way?
- Jerry Sittser also wrote that there is “beauty and dignity of routine tasks and ordinary life–if lived for God.” What do you think that might look like in real life?
- Hope Edelman, Mother of my Mother: The Intricate Bond Between Generations, writes that how you deal with loss is how you get defined in life. Do you agree?
- When you learn a little of the local and national history behind the scenes, it helps to orient each generation. Do you have a favorite generation from these motherline stories? Was one more significant to you?
- We are urged to not spend time looking back. But Deuteronomy 32: 7 says, “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Which advice do you think is more wise? Which would you follow?
- “When you are gone, what is going to remain? What traditions and stories of love and hope will be your legacy?” asked Bob Goff in Catching Whimsey: 365 Days of Possibility. How would you answer?
Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy at Amazon.com. At Amazon.uk