Threads

Yesterday, we enjoyed Blue Eyes tea and lunch at the French Truck during a Words to Brew On session. We also wrote to prompts about the past—past as evidence, past as companion, past as compost.

One of the sentence-stem prompts—”The thread continues through…”—landed on me like an invitation to explore threads of the past that weave their way through our lives.

This is what I wrote (rough and unedited):

Corn
Oatmeal cookies
Brownies
Ginger snaps
Green beans
Mujadara

There are different threads my children can claim and carry forward. They practiced with both of their grandmothers. They practiced with me and Baba.

I think of foods as the visible threads they’ll carry forward and continue to weave into the fabric of their future.

Baked pasta
Chicken rice
Mamuffins
Chili

But there are also invisible threads, the ones that stitch us from within, that secure our hearts, that ground our spirit.

Calm
The kids have already told me, they want to channel my calm in crisis. It’s boring in conversation and at parties. But when the house catches fire, it’s this calm that shepherds everyone to safety.

Passion
They get their fire from Baba. A great conversation starter and party favor. Not always useful in a crisis, but a great motivator and energizer for pursuing dreams.

Hands on
They’ll all pull on this thread from Mom, their Mama Nick. The kids come: drop everything, bake cookies, go pick berries. That love that turns to, toward, face to face, to be present with the ones you love.

Our writing time was cut short, but this captured what I felt when I read the prompts.

Weaving Forward

We followed up the write with a chat about how comforting it is to think about what our children and others will carry forward from their experience with us. The threads they’ll pull into their future, threads that weave deep into our histories. A recipe that I carry forward from my grandmother that was passed down to her from her mom or grandmother who learned it from her mom and so on.

The invisible threads, like temperaments that help us through challenges. Or that maybe challenge us along the way.

What are the threads from your life, personality, and habits—visible and invisible—that others might pull into a future beyond yours? I listed some of mine, but here are a few more.

Writing
Gardening
Canning
Spontaneity
Cultural curiosity
Openness
Strong friend circles

I wonder if I were to ask my children to name my threads, how would our lists converge and diverge?

Tell us your threads.

©Pennie Nichols. All Rights Reserved. 2026