Josie (Changes)

The news about today’s stock market plummet has made me pretty queasy. That was the feeling in my stomach when I toggled my screen away from CNN.com and popped open my “stories” folder looking for something to post here for you. Browsing through our seniors’ latest stories – all of which are amazing in their own ways, I found myself pausing at Josie’s, and rereading them several times. They seem even more calming today than when I had first heard them in class.

… the old heavy black Singer sewing machine with engraved golden print that sang smoothly like a locomotive as grandmother guides fabric beneath the needle that rose and fell to create a stitch…

Rereading these words, I swear I am just watching Josies’ grandmother at the sewing machine, watching - and listening - as the needle makes that single stitch. She’s right. “Life is moving so fast,” but at the same time, life is simple, life is ok, when we take the time to appreciate the way a simple needle rises and falls. Today’s still the best day of my life so far.

Josie A Miller
7.21.2011
Changes

Today is the beginning of a new phase in my life.  I am 72 years old and today, for the first time, I joined a senior citizen center.  Before now I had resisted joining a group of “old” people because I want to keep up with the present and the future.  Life is moving so fast.  New technology, new types of art, especially music.  New people with new languages, food and dress.  The faster I ran the faster things changed. Now I embrace my own time, my own age and realize little has changed.

Josie Miller
7.28.2011
Dresses

Images of fabrics of numerous textures, prints and colors; my grandmother’s hands as she held the scissors and cut into the clothes; the old heavy black Singer sewing machine with engraved golden print that sang smoothly like a locomotive as grandmother guides fabric beneath the needle that rose and fell to create a stitch.

I had never owned a store bought dress.