Mid-step on a Winding Staircase

Image Credit: 
Christine und Hagen Graf

I loved to sit halfway up a winding staircase at Grandma's house and imagine. What was growing up in this house like?

Did wondering children sit on steps?  Did they race up to the attic playroom or down to dinner? At the top of the staircase opened a door for my sister and me into the attic and our father's childhood playroom.

A cornucopia of vintage toys fueled by children's energy and imagination awaited us.  We astonished ourselves with new-found abilities winding up music boxes and jack-in-the boxes. Music or motion resulted from our action, not batteries.

We recognized classic toys like wooden trains and blocks. We later learned that few of these toys came from stores. Our grandfather, relatives, family friends and children themselves had put together the dollhouse, cars, and hobby horses. Those toys still carried the imagination, skill, and love of their creators.  

My sister and I would never meet our grandfather, who passed away years before our births. Yet, magically, we could experience the best of him, still infused in his home-made, wooden toys.  

That evening, we besieged our parents with new questions.  They shared how they would dream up new toys, gather materials from scraps around the house, put them together, and in each step infuse these playthings with memories.  In working on and playing with the toys, Mom and Dad both developed new skills and invested pieces of themselves.

In that moment, we glimpsed the eternal children living in our parents.  We saw the experiences that linked our parents' inner children to their adult selves.  We discovered bits of our parents in our own creativity and perspectives.  That day, we all grew in wisdom and appreciation for one another.  We experienced what I now identify as motherwit.

Motherwit certainly links steps of experiences into a meaningful whole, but it also fuses generations into a staircase.  We build on the past and stretch up towards the future. In so doing, we discover new aspects of ourselves.  

One of many ways to connect is to continue the tradition. To my delight, Mother Earth News shares my enthusiasm for old-fashioned toys, even detailing directions to make wooden ducks, ducks, and the like.  These toys not only connect with past wisdom, but also to a sustainable future.  As Robert Anton Wilson remarks, "The way forward is also the way back."

Now, a winding, pie-wedge staircase represents for me not only idle questions, but the very connections between generations. A single step rarely leads to a destination; a flowing sequence of steps takes us to new levels.  

Now, a winding, pie-wedge staircase represents for me not only idle questions, but the very connections between generations. A single step rarely leads to a destination; a flowing sequence of steps takes us to new levels.  

Join the Conversation

Vintage toys open the door to our family's past.
Image Credit: Jean L.

Perhaps many of your still sit midway up your personal staircases.  If so, open the door at the top.  You may identify with family heirlooms, photos, recipes, or stories.  All of these and more connect you with motherwit.  

Share your stories in the comments below. When we pool motherwit, we build up our collective wealth.