Hour 2
My cherished memory is a picture
of my grandma sitting at our dining room table
with the wallpaper flowers behind her.

I remember feeling excitement
when she and my uncle came down
from “up north” in mid Michigan.

I remember getting
Little Ceasar’s Pizza Pizza
and loving it.

I remember my mom getting frenzied
before their visit and getting mad
when I asked her about it and
I didn’t understand.

I remember feeling connected
where extended family meant a world
outside of my isolated “Christian family”
where everyone else was “of the world”
and we were not.

I remember not wanting to be set apart
from the world
as I was part of it
and I felt tethered to the earth.

I didn’t want to be different.
I didn’t want to be “not of this world”.
I wanted to be a part of.
I wanted to belong.

My cherished memory is in a picture.