Dazzled

I just learned that a houseguest is coming here tonight and last Friday a bird was swooping around on the third floor where I would put him. It finally wormed its way under the door and ended up in the attic crawl-space and I walked away fast, hoping he’d find his way out under the eaves. Point is I'm still scared to go up there so today at 6am I entered this little 2nd-floor room not slept in since last Christmas when all 8 of our young'uns were home for the holidays.I walked in there this morning and was dazzled by light that in summer only comes in for maybe 30 minutes right after sun-up.The sight just dazed me and seemed to nudge me off my moorings. Were all these things here before?The old bureau?My grandfather’s specs resting upon it?And here again is my sweet first girl smiling up at me and my how I loved her in that dress!And above the bureau and to the right a picture of my own little family of origin in the frame that will never hang straight.

What is this place with tokens of both the 1880s and the 1980s, the dear dead past and the dazzling present? I have many tasks to accomplish today, checking on that poor bird being only the first - but how could I not first come here to you and show you what I saw just after dawn on this midsummer morning?Maybe the tile on this novel which was sitting right here explains it. The Notebook of Lost Things it says.

But are they lost really? I think they are just out of sight.

me with our mom and my big sister Nan