We have a beautiful grandfather clock. When we bought it, we knew we didn't want one that required any electrical power. We wanted the real, handcrafted type with the chimes that are actually struck by small hammers deep within the cabinet of the clock. The type of chimes that if you are near the clock and wait in still silence, when they sound you can actually feel the vibrations in your chest.
There is something psychologically reassuring to me when I hear the chimes late at night while in bed. We all have those triggers - tastes, smells, sounds - that bring back comforting memories. Pumpkin pies baking in the fall. Spiced tea around Christmas. Hearing the grandfather clock strike the hour late at night brings back floods of memories such as spending the night at my grandparents house, especially during the holidays.
And for my generation, there is Captain Kangaroo and his cast of friends we grew up with: Mr. Green Jeans, Bunny Rabbit, and of course, Grandfather Clock. I remember three things about the show most vividly: the opening theme music, the falling ping pong balls, and the wonderful friendly smile that Grandfather Clock always had.
Grandfather Clock could talk! He was a steady-head with a cheerful disposition who NEVER got angry...had a great laugh, beautiful blue eyes, and offered good advice for all the little boys and girls in TV land.
My love for grandfather clocks MUST have started then.
Yes, ALL my memories related to grandfather clocks are positive. Which is why we had to have one in our home. For me, the sound of a real grandfather clock in the background is one of those things that makes a house into a home.
Which brings us to why I'm writing this post.
Every Sunday morning I have to wind our grandfather clock. Well, I don't think "wind" is exactly the right term. I have to take a small wooden handled brass crank and and insert it into three separate openings in order to reset the three weights. Three times I gently crank the handle as a weight at the end of a long thin cable is rewound and rises from the bottom of the cabinet back up to the clockworks where it will begin another seven days of gently applying weight downwards - thus providing the drive for the clockworks. One weight drives the clock. One drives the hourly chimes (the bells of St. Michael's), and the other drives the hammer for the actual tolling of the time.
We have never missed a Sunday doing this task. If we are out of town, our friends who watch the house and feed the cat also know to wind the clock.
It has become a ritual. And like any true ritual, it has taken on a deeper, spiritual, esoteric meaning. That is, this is not a duty or chore that must be performed, it is ceremony of recognition that time has passed, a new week lies ahead. It becomes a moment of celebration for the blessings of the past week and prayer for the week ahead. It gives us pause to remember that time has passed which cannot be recaptured - did I do more good than harm to others? I pray so. And what of the time ahead? Will I make the most of every minute?
Today's grandfather clock ritual was a particularly difficult one. Without dwelling on it, as I wound each of the three heavy brass weights back into position, let me just say:
It was a celebration that my mother-in-law's open heart surgery two weeks ago was successful and she is recovering nicely...
...and it was a prayer for my brother who faces surgery this week to have cancer removed from his too-young-to-be-going-through-this body.
I need the deep chimes to vibrate my body and soul this week. To remind me that time passes and creates new challenges while also helping us remember past blessings. I have wound the clock with a smile for my mother-in-law and tears for my brother. I have put the past to bed and now look forward to the week ahead. It won't be an easy week - at least as compared to past weeks when everyone in my world was healthy and well. But it will be a week in which new miracles might happen, new opportunities will be presented, and the chimes will still sound with unrelenting regularity as the world continues on and God's will is fulfilled.
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