Thank God and Thank You, My Loving Children, For Being in My Life
Posted: Thursday, November 29, 2007
by Jeff Brown
Inner Projection
How often do we thank our children for being the good people that they are? How often do we hug them? How often do we sit and share their tears? What a masterpiece the child / parent relationship is, born of perfection waiting to come to fruition through love, patience, humility, and depth of learning and teaching that flows from child to parent and back.
I have a son who is 18, who has hands of genius. He can create solutions to any problem mechanical. My daughter, 13, with her nose always in a book is just like daddy, she who just tonight played him to a stalemate in chess. "Better brush up on your skills, pop!" she winks with satisfaction. My youngest, Mikie, is 27 months, a bundle of confused and anxious energy figuring out life and its inherent tumble of emotions. I bless you my son, in your effort to learn. It is a long road. A struggle supreme! Extraordinaire! I only have some of the answers, but I will unreservedly share them with you, and in turn, learn from you, the gentle rub of my back after a violent sneeze that you saw attack your defenseless daddy. Bless you my son.
It is here, the family where we love, learn, are strengthened and turned toward that of the critical—eternal truth and understanding. It is here where we learn to sacrifice for the other, struggle against our innate selfishness toward the wonder of Christ's charity within. It is here where we learn sharing, giving, compassion, patience, respect, obedience, hope, hard work, tenacity, humor, fun, frolic and play. It is here where we suffer together, holding back tears in silence, merely holding until our strengths return to each the desire to get up, the desire to go on.
Family? Without it there is no society. It is society. Nothing outside of it has purpose. All that exists is enhanced by it. It improves our school halls, meeting rooms, churches, synagogues, mosks, temples, boardrooms, if done right with all that we can take from it to enhance, imbue, and sustain.
Family is where the teacher becomes the taught, the learner the teacher, the strong one weak, and the passionate one sober. Here is where all the animosity and struggle of life works within its laboratory, waiting to be taken to the streets by loving, caring, patient, hopeful hands.
May the holiday season bless you with the struggle of understanding. The passion of hope. And the truth of our purpose and the blessed world to come.
Jeff, very well-written article. However, I've always been itching to ask this of someone who claims that his children are his life: Did you have any kind of life before you had children? Just wondering.Terry, I certainly had a life before children, but find out after having them that children, or family, is life. Life before and without is hollow and quite depressing. I was OK for a while but I realized something was missing in a BIG way. What was it? Mi familia. I found out that family is why we are here.
Yes, in Italy we say Familia and it is the most important element of society we all can have. It is the same in many nations. I too am blessed with wonderful, caring children and i hurt when they hurt, laugh when they laugh and they the same. Unfortunately, many don't have that, never had that, or had some variation of that. Those just described long for it and find substitutes for not having it to assure themselves it wasn't needed. The simplicity of your article is that we all need someone to love and share with and who loves us in return. The world would have been a better place if we strengthened family values instead of destroying it and those in charge did have the objective of tearing the family unit apart and they were and are highly successful. Enough said, good job.Robert, I couldn't agree with you more. My wife is from Colombia and here definition of life is family too. Even though she struggles with our 2 1/2 year old Mikie, and our two teenagers, she is beginning to see that we are put hear to be students and teachers. Nothing else. All else is distraction. Struggles are put before us, even family struggles, to help us bond to our fellow man and woman, to help us learn, to find compassion, to be more selfless, to reach out to others. If we are good students, then we can pass our knowledge, understanding, patience, love, compassion onto our children. It is here and only here where the foundations of great societies are solidified. Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
Jeff, beautifully written and so true. I especially loved what you wrote, "...Family is where the teacher becomes the taught, the learner the teacher, the strong one weak, and the passionate one sober. Here is where all the animosity and struggle of life works within its laboratory, waiting to be taken to the streets by loving, caring, patient, hopeful hands...." Thank you for this wonderfully, moving article!Judi, You acknowledge why I write, to inspire and invoke. I appreciate you conveying your feelings to me in print. God bless. Jeff
