One-line emails

My mother has pages and pages of journal, I'm not sure where she keeps them. I remember when we moved there were a lot of boxes marked "Marcia's," and most of them heavy with papers. Maybe because she is still alive, or perhaps because she'd like to do some edits - we kids don't have full perusal rights. But sometime in the past year she's started sharing little one-liners that she has written about us through the years.

I just started getting these little one-line emails this year and I love them. They come once or twice a week interspersed with her other encouraging messages and some how they communicate to me what it was like to be a part of my family as baby, memories of my brothers that I didn't grow up with . . . She can remember what I can't. Today I got a line

Oct. 1983
Elizabeth and you were under Jozanne's bed, squealing to your hearts' delight.
I love you.
Mom

Who knew I was such an exciting baby? Or that I made so much noise.
In so many ways its reflection of my mother, what she saw in us and the things she extracts from those daily histories that she chooses to tell me.
In organizational communication they say the stories you tell about your organization shape a person's perspectives. In the same way - the book The Intentional Family encourages intentional story telling of family history to shape family values.

Looking back through my emails I can't help but see all the love coming through those little one-liners.