Sometimes life cries out for a nice break from the daily routine …… a pie break, so to speak. A time to sit, to listen, to reflect. To taste the sweetness of life.
After posting Love is the Key on January 19th of this year, it still stands. I just love my dogs.
Maybe they have replaced caring for my granddaughters full time. LOL I do call Teddy Roosevelt (the pup) Penny June (the girl) from time to time. I have even called Penny Teddy, oops.
It must be the mothering thing. It just doesn’t go away as time goes by, it changes. I like that. After all, as we grow out of childhood into adulthood and the decades that entails, we don’t go away…..we change. We evolve. We grow.
We are still there – or here. I know for me, my whole life has grown and changed and evolved. Some of us “find ourselves” at a young age. Some never lost ourselves so therefore, didn’t have to find ourselves. Some of us, like me, did not grow up in an environment that knew myself. But I found me along the way and I love me.
Did you follow that paragraph? I hope so. The bible says to train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. I’ve heard countless times that it refers to faith and spiritual things. I believe it goes deeper than that.
If you have five children you cannot raise all five the same way. You have five different people in your care and all five are individual personalities. I believe that as parents we need to purposely find out who each one is and help them along the way to see who they are and who they will become. Then they won’t have to go on that journey of discovering who they are. They won’t lose themselves in life and then have to find themselves.
Wow. That almost twisted my head. I had two cups of coffee this morning and then a noon latte.
So, back to my dogs….. Teddy Roosevelt is just about five months old now and has already outgrown his brother George Bailey. The games continue….
Teddy Roosevelt
George Bailey after Penny June put party hat on his head
I have always loved music. I have always been searching for the music that touches my heart in honesty and love in the deepest way. Music and words that speak truth and human emotions.
That is one reason that I have always related to David of the bible. Particularly, I have always loved the raw honesty in the Book of Psalms.
I came across this article and video today. It is truthful and honest. No religion in it just pure relationship.
I happen to like Bono very much. His spiritual journey has been an inspiration over the years. And Eugene Peterson of The Message translation fame has been a breath of fresh air in bible reading for me.
This video touched my heart. It speaks of thoughts and expressions I have felt for a long time. Please watch it and hear it with openness and not judgement.
Here we go. Another year is ending and a new one beginning. Do you like that or dislike that?
I always like it. Even though I feel old and my life is flying by, I still welcome a New Year. I like the idea of changes to come and new adventures and old ones closing, perhaps.
I have very little idea of what is to come for Cate B. I will still be caring for my lovely grand-girls this New Year. But those days are numbered. Last year at this time I was dreading the girl watching to end and them moving on. I was ready to pack up and run with them dragging husband and dogs with me. But now, a year later I feel differently.
I feel that I should start dreaming again. Dreaming of things that I desire and that the Lord has instilled in me long ago. It’s still a bit fuzzy and foggy. I do believe the fog will lift and I will see again.
Sometimes I visualize a tug o’ war going on in my spirit. Little lies of “you’re too old” against great truths of “you’re never too old”. I am on the side of truth, even though, somedays it is a battle to believe. Especially when you say goodbye to a friend who died too young and you see headlines the day after Christmas of deadly storms sweeping the nation.
One of my favorite verses in the bible that tells of great advice for all is:
I want to be worked into God’s most excellent harmonies! There’s a dream for the New Year and my life! I think I’ll start there.
So here goes, Dear Readers, may these last few days of the old year be joyful and fulfilling for you and even more, may the New Year greet you with more Joy and Dreams coming to pass. May you be able to choose the truth and dwell on it. And may you be found in His most excellent harmony!
Since we moved to the mid-west I never get tired of looking at the vastness of the sky. I know the sky can be seen almost anywhere but when you spend years of marveling at the ocean, as I did, and you move to where there is no ocean, the sky becomes your ocean. It is amazing.
Today I was struck with the clear quality and the deep blue…….
“Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.” Psalm 36:5
Enjoy! And USA (states that do this) don’t forget to fall back one hour when you go to bed tonight! 😀
Now that I have the honor and the privilege of caring for two of my grandchildren, I have the time to really look at the miraculous event of new-born babies and human growth. It is amazing. When I was pregnant, I knew that a human being was forming in my womb. I read a lot about the process and the birth and what I could possibly expect. I was as ready as I could be ahead of time. But pregnancy and childbirth and child rearing is a hands on, learn – as – you – go type of thing. I think it is best to be prepared and not go into it blindly. But the real learning is in the trenches.
When grand parenting comes along and you are able to be involved in their lives, it is a whole new ball game. It is a wonder – wonder |ˈwəndər|nouna feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable : he had stood in front of it, observing the intricacy of the ironwork with the wonder of a child.• the quality of a person or thing that causes such a feeling : Athenswas a place of wonder and beauty.• a strange or remarkable person, thing, or event : the electric trolley car was looked upon as the wonder of the age.• [as adj. ] having remarkable properties or abilities : a wonder drug.• [in sing. ] a surprising event or situation : it is a wonder that losses are not much greater.
The trenches are furnished and comfortable. You get to hand the child over to your child and just watch and wonder. You see how all you went through has paid off. You see your “baby” handle their babies with love and patience and things you tried hard to instill in them (and occasionally wondered if it worked, only to find out it did!).
Looking into the face of a few week old baby and seeing traits of your family and their mother’s family is indescribable. What a miracle. All parts put together in such a way to form a totally unique individual.
Now begins the part where the parents, grand parents, and others who influence this newly formed human being, get to mold and shape them the way they were meant to be. The bible states in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go (and in keeping with his individual gift or bent), and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Seems that a lot of bible believers think this is limited to raising them into their beliefs. While that may be true, the verse implied that we should keep with the way each child is bent, their individual gifts. Here is where the work begins. Who is this little person that was inside us and made with our love together? That all gets unfolded as their lives grow before us. Finding their gifts and the way they are can be difficult. It means to pay attention. I marvel when I see a small child act a certain way that can be so easily misconstrued. Sometimes their behaviour can really mean – hey, look at me, I really love horses – or whatever the case may be.
I hope my husband and I did well in this area. I’m sure we weren’t perfect at this. But I do know that I have spent much of my adult life trying to be free and find my “bent” and gifts in this life. I was raised to be like my parent. I think it was easier for her, a single mom, to raise me to do things her way and her way only. It was hard growing up under that. I do not blame her. She did the best she could and what she knew. What that upbringing did for me was to teach me to think for myself and therefore help my children to be their selves. I relate very closely to the little girl in the Disney movie Brave. I just didn’t and couldn’t fight for myself as a child.
So, as a grand parent, I can do that for my grand children. It is pure joy to speak life and hope in them. I want nothing more than to see them know who they are and to grow into who they were made to be. It is truly a Wonder!
I have mentioned before that I gave birth to four lovely children. Motherhood is truly a blessing from God that is priceless. It’s not always easy and it doesn’t come with an instruction booklet. Ask my oldest son. I still tell him to forgive us. After all, he was the first-born and we were clueless. He was like a guinea pig in some ways. I am, however, thankful for those authors who published helpful books.
My first two, a son and then a daughter, were pretty by the book, so to speak. Challenging, but great with their feeding and growth timings. Even their behaviors were not too difficult as young babies and toddlers (teenage years will have to be another post). Then along came the third born. Another son. Cute as a button. I wanted a boy and told my husband. I even had his name picked out before conception. I just knew, therefore I had to have. And there he came. Things were going along quite nicely until he began to crawl and walk and then talk. Crawling wasn’t good enough. He had to climb before his first step. Found him in the middle of the kitchen table standing there at seven months of age.
Then came the talking. He had an amazing use of baby language. It went something like this:
Well, you get the idea. This type of conversation went on the entire car ride length of the mountain valley we lived in.
When words made more sense to him he would ask for Mackaners for dinner. Took me a while to realize he wanted a hamburger. Mackaner being a cross between a big mac and a hamburger. His Uncle Peter was Uncle Computer – cross between the other uncle that gave us our first computer and Peter.
As he grew my husband and I would look at each other from time to time and ask, “Who does he take after?” We were clueless. He looked a lot after my side of the family so we knew there was no switching at the hospital.
One day, I was home alone with him and his new baby brother, who was taking a nap. I watched our number three son go around the kitchen opening all the lower cupboards hoping for an empty one he could crawl into and be alone. I knew how he felt. I was vacuuming and just talking to the Lord about this little guy he gave us. I asked again, “Who does he take after?” I believe God can talk to us in a deep place within in a still small voice, a strong whisper (bible reference I Kings 19:12). I heard, “He takes after you”, as I continued to vacuum. I said, “No, I don’t think so. He is very confident and travels to his own beat.” I heard again, “He takes after you.” And then it hit me. He is so much like me and I couldn’t see it until that moment. I began to see my life unfold before me – as I continued to vacuum – when I was just three or four years old my parents faced a difficult time. My dad became ill and suddenly he passed away when I was just four. My mom found herself having to raise three children on her own, the youngest doesn’t even remember our dad. From that point we, as young children, were put in a place where we had to grow up fast. My older brother was told the old belief, “You’re the man now”….. what???? I was a middle child with great imagination and creativity that got forced into a left-brained world. I was lost. I became withdrawn and extremely shy. No one knew what to do with me because I was so quiet. I grew up with my mom constantly saying that the teachers think I need a psychiatrist. That was the 1950s – that was the mindset. Now a days we go to counselors or life coaches because, let’s face it, we can’t do it alone. But the generation my mom came from were very strong and very proud folk.
So I knew at that moment while vacuuming that my son and I were two peas in a pod. He was just being raised differently. I knew my mom did the best she knew how but there were consequences that I had to walk through. That day was such a day of freedom for me. A day of healing. I told my husband about it that night and told him to look out! I now know who I am.
That is one of the most wonderful things about having children and raising them. They are each a different individual. Each one cannot be raised identical to the last one. Your family will have a general way you want to raise your family, your beliefs, religion, moral standards. But the carrying out of those things will be different for each child. Time outs may not work for one as they did for the others. And that is what I think is the hardest part of parenting. Knowing and discovering each of your children as individuals and what makes them tick and what will be the best for each one is a lot of work!
Hats off to you parents of today! And to you grandparents who play such a vital part in your children’s and children’s children’s lives! Don’t forget to take the time to enjoy life with them. They are a joy not a drudgery!
Have you noticed that the world is crying out for hope and happiness and just plain old positive things to think about? It’s everywhere. Wonderful positive and encouraging quotes on twitter, Facebook and pinterest.
The other day I bogged about The Glad Game and Pollyanna ( see The Pollyanna Syndrome post on my page). It’s purposing to come up with things to be glad about. It can change your whole perspective on life and all the crap you are facing. It can be challenging because, let’s face it, to us our situation looks really huge and grim and no light at the end of the tunnel. But really if you dwell on the good thoughts it will change. It’s like the law of gravity – what goes up must come down. Try it. It may take some time for some of us because we have spent years dwelling on and expecting the negative. There may be a lot of sludge to break through. But it WILL change.
This is not a new concept. It’s not a new thing. It’s been around a very long time.
“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things, true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” said by the Apostle Paul Philippians 4:8-9
