Twenty Things I Love From Childhood

I am grateful to my parents for providing a safe, nourishing and loving childhood for me. It is one of the things I am most grateful for in life. Every child in the world deserves memories like this. And while many of us have less than perfect starts in life, we are in control of the present and the future and have the ability to start today with creating a warm and loving environment in our home.

1. Crawling into bed with my parents on a stormy night, feeling safe between their warm bodies while the thunder ripped across a blackened sky.

2. Living on a 50-acre farm in Holmes County, Ohio where daily meals around the table were an important part of our lives.

3. The rare times I was permitted to sit on the preacher's bench with my dad, swinging my white stocking-clad feet tucked into my shiny patent leather shoes.

4. Walking into the barn on a frosty morning, snuggling up next to the warm body of the cow my dad was milking, waiting patiently as he squirted fresh, frothy milk into my cup.

5. Reaching into a box of newly hatched chicks, bringing a handful of fluffy, peeping bodies to my cheeks for a snuggle.

6. Waking to the sounds of my dad making pancakes in the kitchen and my mom singing at her sewing machine.

7. Coming home at night and seeing my dad kneeling beside his chair in the living room, praying, his Bible open in front of him.

8. The vivid memory of throwing myself across my dying mother, asking God to spare her life. And the relief that flooded my seven-year-old body when He did.

9. Helping dad husk corn in the fields that seemed to stretch on forever, then snacking on the crisp apples and crunchy graham crackers my mom packed for a snack.

10. Making pottery out of the mud beside the farm pond.

11. Climbing the cherry tree in our backyard, and enjoying the sweet, yellow fruit by the handful.

12. Eating the favorite foods my mom cooked for me: 'milk' noodles with browned butter, mashed potatoes and chicken, pumpkin pie, cherry pot pie, apple dumplings, and brown sugar pudding.

13. The three-week camping trip I took with my parents as we traveled to the West Coast.

14. The smell of home fries cooking in the pan over our Coleman stove on that same trip, and the lantern we used when night started to fall.

15. Driving the farm tractor across the fields.

16. Eating slices of apple butter toast at my Grandma's house.

17. Going to the Five and Dime Store with my dad on the day he bought me my last doll.

18. Listening to my uncles tell stories of the good old days -- of driving Model T cars, farming with horses, opening their home to tramps who stopped for a meal and a bed, surviving the Great Depression, and working for 25 cents a day.

19. Holding my dad's caloused hand as we walked across the field to get the cows for evening milking.

20. Knowing my parents always loved God, loved each other, and loved me.