| Show kathleen norris says all yours for nothing BU bell syndicate featured Feat rea tures J L M I 1 0 v IY WIM the fundamental essentials of food shelter love home kooks books light water solely safety from fear we take calmly for granted by KATHLEEN N ORRIS NORRIS OME time ago our town S SOME sent crates and crates of clothing to stricken europe probably your town didt did too we stripped our closets of everything warm and wearable that we could spare and of some things we could not spare for the sake of shivering wom women en and va b bies overseas our thanks come principally in the consciousness of a good deed well done and the knowledge that many a shak shaken forlorn mother is grateful to the god to whom she prayed for help and whose i minister swe were privileged to be but bui sometimes a little trickle of personal thanks creeps through too and such a tribute came to me this week from an unknown ri friend in poland whose small ma I 1 daughters are wearing my granddaughters coats this winter this woman lived in america Arne tor several years and writes in good english she has hai one room in an almost destroyed building windows have recently been put back she says and running water Is only a few hundred feet away water is such a miracle says bays the letter andio and to have ave this whole quiet room to ourselves seems eeme to us a miracle too food Is scarce but thanks to the quaker and the red cross it is sure and fear is gone if you could know what what it means not to be afraid kin starved to death my husband both brothers my father were starved to death or died for the want of witter water I 1 hid with my children in the lutes of the city for many weeks now all that la is over now novi we walk balk the streets freely we can talk we can make friends now I 1 can get up early and watch the sunrise and stop in church for a few minutes and now with spring beginning what beauties on an every handl hand we have a jar of wild flowers the new potatoes are con coming ang along soon oon we will have beans and cherries every day some new delight someday we say we will live out on a farm for thet the farms arms need hands and I 1 am familiar with dairy work in the old days the letter concludes 1 I wanted so much my husband and I 1 had a well furnished flat a cat car I 1 could buy china and clothes there were dinner parties and wedding feasts how fast it all a vanished vanis hedl our home gone our securities in the bank confiscated strangers everywhere my husbands job lost himself a prisoner and my dear father who would so gladly have helped us gone in his turn tum there was no work and no help for me the wife of a patriot we begged we starved we crept out of sight my younger child was born in a shed ched with an old shepherd and sheep to keep us company in the bitter winter now we are so every little new home that is biang built or re seems to belong to me the tha moon shining down through the old trees the church bells ringing the newly plowed field how beautiful they all are arel when I 1 see work vork and restoration beginning again and lights in houses and hear worn beauty of sunlight on snow TAKEN FOR GRANTED even the poorest americans have much to be thankful for compared to people in europe and asia such simple things as water and plain food a tight roof and some kind of heating gnp are often difficult to obtain over much of of the war dev countries warm clothing in is very scarce medicine is it hard ard to get except where the red cross or some other agency has a station all sorts of plain everyday necessities are missing it is particularly hard on women with young children the story ofa of a polish woman is told in article she had been accustomed to a luxury level of existence before the war they had a fine apartment a cari car good furniture money for travel and social events the war changed all this her husband brothers and father are all dead they starved she managed to survive survive by begging and scavenging in the ruined city one child was born in d a sheep barn now that hostilities have ceased conditions are better but there is still much suffering she has learned to appreciate ordinary things that all bof of us take for granted 11 en calling their children and laughing it seems to me that life Is too beautiful to be borne bome now I 1 can say gay of our enemies of yesterday as my poor father did dying forgive them they mey know not what they doll do I 1 1 this letter has made me see sea my own environment with new eyes and has made me wonder how much we appreciate the miracles that are all about us sunsets and sunrises the glory of spring moonlit nights in summer and the first timid flutter of snow these are all ours if we will but claim them clear cold water a snug roof over our head books to read meals however plain to enjoy a smooth bed at night and deep sleep let these things be taken away for a while and we begin to know their value worry over ever trifles it if we can see one meal ahead tor for the children we feel rich said a french women woman a few years ago we look no further ahead than that and here we americans are fussing about the cost of spring clothes about summer plans about the shortage of butter and mayonnaise about the tha babies college career in the about the lost lett letter erand and the he embarrassing invitation about the slowness of the dry cleaners and the non delivery of the didy wash the fundamental essentials of food shelter love home books light water safety from tear fear we take calmly for granted it is worry about the non essentials that keeps us from ever seeing the breath tal tak ing beauty of sunrise the light of cold winter sunlight on snow the lilacs wat that begin to toss and blow in the spring wind our own quarrelsome complaining discontented voices voice keep us from listening tor for Shake rain that whistles in the april wind or sharing the im in mortal wine of emily emili Dicken dickensons sons september |
