A week to go

A week to go, and my story will start to be written down. I thought I would tell my background of the reason I have the story to tell.

When I was young, nine to be exact. I was given a Blue Willow China Miniature Tea Set

Not only similar to this one, but EXACTLY like this one. My hands can still feel the smooth shape of the creamer pitcher as I'd run my fingers around it's lips.

I was given it by my step mother for my 9th birthday. It wasn't just any Blue Willow set. It had been hers ... and she didn't have a daughter of her own to give it to. So, it was her honor to give it to me. She could have picked my older sister, but she chose me. It had been given to her for her 9th birthday, and to her mom for her 9th birthday ... it was a family tradition and I was being pulled into the family, not by blood, but by honor.

She had me read the legend of the blue willow ... 2 young lovers ... a cruel mean father who vowed to keep them apart. Her husband was from an enemy country, and he was tyrannical at best ... The beauty of the land they lived in was lost on her father. All he cared about was power ...and being right. She loved this young man... and she married him against her father's will.
Because she did, he vowed to kill them both. They hid for a while in the shed behind the willow tree. When he found them, they fled across the bridge

All blue willow china has the shed, the willow tree, and the bridge with the three figures running across the bridge.

When the 2 lovers get across the bridge, They are turned into doves or love birds (depending on who tells the legend) forever, to be kept together ...safe, and out of the reach of the tyranical father ... flying above the problems of the world, in the beauty of the garden she loved so much ...



So, as a 9 year old girl, I fell in love with the story for obvious reasons. The dreamer in me, found the story irresistable.

However, what was also in me, was a tomboy that was not to be reckoned with.

Fragile, china, and tomboys ...just really ...aren't a good idea. The ideal situation would have been to give it to me, and put it away till I was old enough, responsible enough to understand the words "antique"; "legacy" & "heritage".

Instead, a gift was a gift ...and they gave it to me ...this child who played as hard as she loved ... and well ... the china did not survive. It quickly became my most beloved possession ... but ...it also didn't survive from my birthday a few days before Thanksgiving, until Christmas.

I found far more uses for the china than sitting mildly with my dolls (who's uses had far more uses than sitting mildly with the tea set) having tea parties. China, simply won't survive such play.

Not a single piece, save the lid to the tea pot survived ..and I lost that before my 10th birthday.

To say, my regrets over this are huge, is putting it mildly. I love the story of the blue willow, I love the pattern. I can get lost in the pattern, the story ... and the idea of running across the bridge to safety ... has become the theme of my Nano novel. So ... Willow's Bridge will be the name of the novel ... a story to tell that's deep in me.

Saftey is something I've been looking for since I was a child ... and it's something I'm longing to find ... I've found bits of it, maybe in the shed ... but I'm looking for permanent safety ... like the birds in the beauty of the garden ... so ... I will run across Willow's Bridge ... and write the story that's in me to tell ...

and we'll see what happens in the month of November ... 34 years after I broke the Blue willow China set ...