Mary Marcia
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/

For as long as I remember...the ornate, cement flower pot (one of a set of four) graced every front porch of every house my Granny Lucille owned in Liberty, Missouri.

I was born in 1949. Granny Lucille was born - as she used to say - "in 19 and 5." She lovingly planted her four matching cement flower pots to overflowing with scarlet-red geraniums each spring.

Sometimes I helped her. We dug in the dirt together, and Granny told lively tales about folks in our family that my mother (her daughter) never dared to mention.

"I'm the STORYTELLER in the family," Granny Lucille would say. "Momma passed it down to me, and I'm passing it on to you, Marcia. When you grow up - tell your children and your grandchildren stories about me and my mother and our family, so when we all get together in Heaven, they will know me."

Before Granny Lucille graduated to tend heavenly gardens in 1990, she also entrusted me with two of her ornate, cement flower pots. I lovingly whitewashed the pots and planted them with scarlet-red geraniums each spring...until 2007, when one of the pots broke. I broke tradition that year and tinted the one remaining pot with terra-cotta and black paint and planted it with crimson impatiens and rosemary.

"This is Granny Lucille's flower pot," I said to my own nine-year old granddaughter, Megan, as she helped me dig in the dirt. "Granny was married three times, and buried all three husbands. Once, she owned a dance hall, and she loved to garden. I helped her plant scarlet-red geraniums in this very pot when I was a little girl."

Granddaughter: Megan Jewell

"Are these red flowers geraniums?" Megan interrupted.

"They're impatiens," I said. "Granny Lucille was the STORYTELLER in the family. Granny's momma passed it down to her, and she passed it down to me, and I'm passing it down to you, Megan...and to Ben and Kristin and Dave and Sarah and Faith and Joshua and Emily and Caleb. When you grow up - tell your children and your grandchildren stories about me and Granny Lucille and our family, so when we all get together in Heaven, they will know us."

Granny Lucille's Family. Copyright 1915 Marcia Norwood
Granny was about 10 years old in this photo.
She is in the center, just behind and to the left of her mother.
Circa 1915

WHO IS THE STORYTELLER
IN YOUR FAMILY?

"Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children
another generation."

Joel 1:3

HOLY BIBLE

King James Version

Marcia (Center Back)

Her Mother: Natalie (Left)

Her Daughter: Kristin (Center Front)

Her Granny Lucille (Right)

What stories are you passing on

to your children and grandchildren?

What's your legacy?

"Remind me of this with each decision,

generations will reap what I sow.

I can pass on a curse or a blessing

to those I will never know."

These are song lyrics written by Sara Groves.

Two of my daughters (Sarah and Faith) one of my granddaughters (Megan Jewell) and I had the opportunity to meet Sara at a women's conference in 2011.

I had the opportunity to talk to Sara Groves, and I told her that her song, GENERATIONS, was one of my favorites. I asked her how someone (as young as she was) could have so much wisdom about generational thinking. Sara said she was very close to her grandmother, and she got it from her.

Listen to Sarah's song.....

GENERATIONS

Song By Sara Groves

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vem45JhIZIo&spfreload=10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK_WmVFAIP8

Sara Groves - Generations Lyrics

I can taste the fruit of Eve
I'm aware of sickness, death and disease
The results of our choices are vast
Eve was the first but she wasn't the last

And if I were honest with myself
Had I been standing at that tree
My mouth and my hands would be covered with fruit
Things I shouldn't know and things I shouldn't see

Remind me of this with every decision
Generations will reap what I sow
I can pass on a curse or a blessing
To those I will never know

She taught me to fear the serpent
I'm learning to fear myself
And all of the things I am capable of
In my search for wisdom, acceptance and wealth

And to say that the devil made me do
It is a cop out and a lie
The devil can't make me do anything
When I'm calling on Jesus Christ

Remind me of this with every decision
Generations will reap what I sow
I can pass on a curse or a blessing

image: http://static.urx.io/units/web/urx-unit-loader.gif

To those I will never know, oh

To my great, great, great grand daughter
Live in peace
To my great, great, great grand son
Live in peace

To my great, great, great grand daughter
Live in peace
To my great, great, great grand son
Live in peace, oh, live in peace

Remind me of this with every decision
Generations will reap what I sow
I can pass on a curse or a blessing
To those I will never know

Oh, remind me
Generations will reap what I sow
I can pass on a curse or a blessing
To those I will never know
Oh, I may never know

Eve was the first but she wasn't the last

Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/sara-groves/generations-lyrics/#uFA1CrhOq06R56gk.99

Philippians 3:7-14

New International Version (NIV)

⁷But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in^[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
¹⁰I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
¹¹and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
¹³Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.