Heart Pockets

Invented to Fill with Love

Heart Pockets
by C.J. Heck

This morning, I was thinking about pockets and what a great invention a pocket has been. It isn’t just a plain old place to put things. There are so many different purposes for a pocket, depending on what it’s for and its owner.

For instance, all my blue jeans have a tinky-tiny pocket just above a larger one. I’ve always been told it was originally designed to be a home for your pocket watch. Of course, most of us don’t carry a pocket watch these days so the pocket is just for “show”.

My billfold has great pockets. There are some for credit cards, coins, my checkbook, a larger pocket designed for my paper money, and even a small one with a little window for my driver’s license.

Then you’ve got cargo pants. Those are loaded with pockets, all up and down the pant legs, but they’re mostly for teens (thank God). I can’t even begin to imagine deciding what to put in those pockets … or how ridiculous we’d look if we filled all of them up!

When I was a child, Mama was forever patching Daddy’s pockets that blew a hole, or putting pockets on pants that didn’t come with any for my little brother. He adored pockets. That’s where he saved his treasures and special finds during a day’s play outside. He always found something special about each discovery which gave him a valid reason for keeping each of them.

Of course, that meant when Mama did laundry, she had to be extra careful. She never knew what she would find when she emptied his pockets. The lucky stones weren’t too bad. What made her cringe was the occasional beastie: a toad, beetle, or hairy spider. I don’t remember exactly, but I think she either saved those for him in a mason jar on his dresser, or just let them go, outside.

My youngest sister also loved pockets. She was convinced she had an angel living in hers who always told her when something she wanted to say or do was good ---or not so good.

Daddy tried to explain that it was her conscience, something we all have, and how proud he was she listened to hers. She wasn’t having any of it though. It was her angel and it lived in her pocket … and come hell or high water, that’s where the angel would stay.

My grandma had one large pocket in the center of her apron. All of us kids loved that pocket and all the special things it held. Besides her glasses and an embroidered hanky, it almost always hid a caramel or two for each of us, or a piece of paper with a new tongue twister she wanted to teach us. We never knew what might be in her pocket, only that it would be special and just for us.

When I became a grandmother, I didn’t have the luxury of living in the same town, or even in the same state as my eleven grandchildren. It was always such a treat when we were together, and unbearably sad when we had to part after the visit.

For that reason, I came up with what I called my ‘Heart Pocket’. You couldn’t see it –-it was magic and invisible, but it was over my heart and very real. I also put a Heart Pocket over each grandchild’s heart.

Just before it was time to go, I filled their Heart Pockets with hugs and kisses and I collected some from each of them to put in mine. That way, when they were homesick and missing me, they could reach into their Heart Pocket and get a Grammy hug or kiss.

It worked the same for me.  When I needed a grandchild’s kiss or hug, all I had to do is reach into my Heart Pocket to get them —and I often did. 

It’s amazing how much action those Heart Pockets got over the years …

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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