What are your favorite possessions? Why?

 family, of course.  so setting that aside....

I love books.  I can't say I have a favorite but I love the smell and feel of reading from paper.  

I have a hat of my dad's.  It used to smell like him but has long sense lost it's scent.  It is the only earthly possession I have of his.  It helps me feel close to him again.  I reminds me that someday I will get to hug him and listen to him and draw strength from his goodness. 

The old upright grand piano my parents bought when I was 5 years old.  It reminds me of my mother's longing to play the piano.  She never learned.  But even in our poverty, she saw that all three of her daughters had lessons.  I remember longing for lessons and feeling impatient when Holly got to start.  In my mature years I look back with wonder on how my mother found teachers and hauled that piano from house to house.  After we were all gone, she decided she did not need the piano as there was no one to play and it took up a lot of room in her house.  I immediately drove from Corvallis to Basin City in the old gold GMC truck to pick it up before she gave it to anyone else.  We backed up to the front door and it was a fairly easy job to roll it into the truck.  We turned it and nestled it against the back of the cab, wrapped it with a tarp and head on our way.  Around Portland it began to rain.  We worried a bit and hoped the tarp would sheild it.  We arrived in around 11pm and realized that the piano was too tall to fit in the garage while on the truck.  We had just moved to the area so we didn't have friends to call and help.  Ray and I tucked the kids into bed quickly and then got to work.  We fashioned a ramp with some tires and wood from the truck bed to the patio door.  As we started to push the piano down the ramp it soon had a mind of it's own.  Luckily, it's determination took it through the open door and not through the window.  We were relieved to have it in the house out of the rain.  We looked it over and in horror found standing water behind the piano at the bottom of the sound board.  We quickly removed it, put a fan on it and prayed we had not ruined it.  Well, the piano has made 5 or 6 more moves since then and still makes my heart leap for joy when I play it.  

It struck me a few years ago how much the Lord must have loved my mother.  He saw to it that three daughters came to her that each loved playing the piano, each learned quite well.  Her longing was realized in them.  I know that the music we played brought much joy to her heart.  

A few more stories around that old piano.  Besides the many hours of playing Beethoven, Bach, Chopin. (Holly, I think was the most accomplished)   We also loved to sing.  The piano did not have a bench so we would pull up a kitchen chair.  Sometimes we would sit together to play and sing.  It wasn't until after I owned the piano for several years that we finally invested in a piano bench.  But I still prefer playing from a kitchen chair.