{"id":245,"date":"2014-12-01T01:09:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T01:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=245"},"modified":"2014-12-01T01:09:56","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T01:09:56","slug":"thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving’s Emotional Leftovers"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is completely unnatural to sort through our parents home once they leave us. It is counter intuitive to rip the puzzle pieces apart when we grow up needing them all to fit lovingly together. <\/p>\n

My brother and sisters and I tried to respectfully honor both our mom and our own memories. We traced the steps of our youth from room to room. We would lift an item
\nand remember it\u2019s roots….recall a mom moment…..laugh about who really dinged or broke what………and smile at our mom\u2019s somewhat organized \u2018disorganized\u2018 collection of kitchen gadgets. <\/p>\n

We would tip toe through each moment. It meant giving each puzzle piece the dignity and value it deserved. We would each choose \u2018heartfelt treasures\u2019 that we needed to have. The items that were most uniquely destined to be our memory of our mom. A remnant of a grand love and an exceptional time that sculpted us. <\/p>\n

As we crept through the interior of those cherished four walls I tried to capture its emotional leftovers. The now sweet sounding arguments over dirty dishes. The thunderously blissful chaos that five children running through the house would emit. The rich warmth of basking in our mother\u2019s love that made these walls safer than any other. The shared and salty tears as we all cried over our \u201cFigaro,\u201d a cat that was indeed that iconic childhood pet. <\/p>\n

That is how the day progressed until we entered the dining room. We stared at the fairly unattractive, Early American dining room set that our mom and dad had bought years before. I remembered well the many times our mom had told us she didn\u2019t really care for Early American. It was our dad who had liked it at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we shouldn\u2019t be too sentimental about this,\u201d I said. \u201cAfter all it was never mom\u2019s favorite.\u201d My sister Kathy looked at me with horror. \u201cThis IS our family,\u201d she said. \u201cThe years, the dinners and all of our family moments.\u201d <\/p>\n

So it was that it became a part of Kathy\u2019s home. It was fine with the rest of us. I guess we, much like our mother, were not lovers of the Early American style.<\/p>\n

The first holidays after our mom passed away were difficult and Thanksgiving was no exception. Soon though with each passing year, every Thanksgiving, the door from my sister\u2019s house would swing open. The first thing I\u2019d see was that somewhat unattractive dining room table, mom\u2019s desert rose china, and the smell of her stuffing and turnips. I
\nwould gleefully receive that unexpected gift of home happily slapping me in the face. <\/p>\n

Then I\u2019d sit in those stark, Early American chairs and though they were just plain, hard, flat wood they felt like I sank right into them. The rest of us sat there happily realizing that our sister had knowingly rescued the best part of home for us all.<\/p>\n

Recently, my sister decided to sell her house and she mentioned that she thinks it\u2019s time to get rid of mom\u2019s dining room set. \u201cWhat?\u201d I thought. It was then that I realized that my boy\u2019s may hear me saying the same thing my mom said growing up, \u201cI really never liked Early American furniture, BUT\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u201d
\n\"how-great-thou-part-3\"<\/a>
\nFollow me on Facebook @Colleen Sheehy Orme
\non Twitter @colleenorme
\non Pinterest @colleensheehyorme
\nE-mail: Colleen.Sheehy.Orme@gmail.com
\nwww.colleensheehyorme.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is completely unnatural to sort through our parents home once they leave us. It is counter intuitive to rip the puzzle pieces apart when we grow up needing them all to fit lovingly together. My brother and sisters and I tried to respectfully honor both our mom and our own memories. We traced the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,14,9],"tags":[230,2,8,36,16,11,31,12,231,21,30],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-divorce-2","category-inspiration","category-spirituality","tag-catholic","tag-divorce","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-gratitude","tag-life","tag-mom","tag-parenting","tag-spirituality","tag-strength","tag-unconditional-love"],"yoast_head":"\nThanksgiving's Emotional Leftovers - How Great Thou Part<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thanksgiving's Emotional Leftovers - How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is completely unnatural to sort through our parents home once they leave us. It is counter intuitive to rip the puzzle pieces apart when we grow up needing them all to fit lovingly together. My brother and sisters and I tried to respectfully honor both our mom and our own memories. We traced the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-01T01:09:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2014\/11\/how-great-thou-part-3-300x115.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen Sheehy Orme\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thanksgiving's Emotional Leftovers - How Great Thou Part","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thanksgiving's Emotional Leftovers - How Great Thou Part","og_description":"It is completely unnatural to sort through our parents home once they leave us. It is counter intuitive to rip the puzzle pieces apart when we grow up needing them all to fit lovingly together. My brother and sisters and I tried to respectfully honor both our mom and our own memories. We traced the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html","og_site_name":"How Great Thou Part","article_published_time":"2014-12-01T01:09:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2014\/11\/how-great-thou-part-3-300x115.jpg"}],"author":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html","name":"Thanksgiving's Emotional Leftovers - How Great Thou Part","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2014\/11\/how-great-thou-part-3-300x115.jpg","datePublished":"2014-12-01T01:09:56+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-01T01:09:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2014\/11\/how-great-thou-part-3-300x115.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2014\/11\/how-great-thou-part-3-300x115.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/12\/thanksgivings-emotional-leftovers.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thanksgiving’s Emotional Leftovers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/","name":"How Great Thou Part","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Colleen Orme","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15","name":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","description":"Born and raised in Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., I often call myself a southern New Yorker, much to the dismay of my true New Yorker buddies. Born to my native Brooklyn parents, I have a love of all things city and all things country. I found myself in the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to The Office, nary a soul could envision less you found yourself on the hills of Interstate 81. I was held up there while I pursued my B.S. in Business. I have two passions: Business marketing and writing. The two are not so terribly different. Why? Cultivating a brand is in essence the story and the connecting of the dots of a corporate entity. I write features for various magazines and newspapers and I am a national divorce columnist (what can I say things didn\u2019t turn out quite the way I thought they would). I am also a former business columnist. For more than fifteen years, I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore in what I call my \u2018out of state\u2019 clothes once again magnetized to the northerners I find so familiar. If I were to brand my writing, I would say I write of LOVE. That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. These human moments are the Hope Virus that spreads amongst us and can\u2019t help but propel us into better human beings with a larger sense of the world.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/author\/corme"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}