The four grandchildren with their valuable prizes won at the San Juan County Fair
No woman loves like her that's growing old. Sophocles
There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved. George SandWithout qualification love and especially the love of children has brought me the greatest joy in my life. My husband and I were blessed with two healthy, vivacious, fun loving, intelligent boys for which I am grateful every day. Those of you who have followed my blog know from some of my initial entries we suffered some baby disasters so I guess I may be more appreciative than people who popped out six kids without blinking an eye. To me each child is precious.
Carrying a human being inside of you is nothing short of science fiction and giving birth is one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. Losing a child is also one of the most painful experiences of my life. That is why it is so important to me to support organizations that help the women and children of the world. When I give, I am renewing my deep gratitude that I have been fortunate to have our wonderful family. The truth is compared to most of the world, we in America who have jobs, cars and all the accoutraments of modern life are comparatively wealthy. By my way of thinking it is our duty to share that wealth with people not so fortunate as ourselves. As a matter of fact some of the most generous people that I know are not the 1%, but instead the struggling middle class. It's interesting that even though many are going through hard times they still manage to be generous. Go figure. Guess being generous brings them joy. Actually that is statistically true, sharing your wealth increase your joy.
Then when my sons married they increased our wealth by bringing two wonderful women into our lives. After a couple of years these wonderful women presented us with the above gorgeous, lively, bright and dear children. More wealth and quadruple the joy! How can I keep from singing??
The best thing about grandchildren is the sense of freedom you feel with these little children. Here you have a child that you love as you did your own child but with none of the undercurrent of anxiety: will I be a good enough parent?; can I always protect and feed him?; etc. Instead it is just sheer delight, and that makes you feel very rich indeed.
Another way in which I am wealthy is that I have a huge extended family consisting of the most interesting, fabulous people on the planet. We, this huge family, get together with a great deal of fanfare. We sing, we laugh and joke, we play games, we eat, drink and are merry. The absolute best of all good times are the weddings that we've celebrated over the last fourteen years. All were joyful affairs and we happily welcome newcomers, via marriage, into this big, boisterous clan of ours. Love and more love.
I know in my work of counseling hundreds of people over the past thirty years that not everyone has the good fortune to have a fabulous family. If that is your situation you must not hesitate to adopt a family into your life. Probably this adoptive family is going to be made up of people who you choose, good friends, who would do anything for you and vice versa andcertainly ones who make you laugh. This will create the opportunity for joy and also increases the amount of love in your life. In other words, do it for selfish reasons, the more love the better. There is an endless supply of love out there: go out into the world and be loving and if you should get some love in return, hot damn. You will be a more joyful, wealthier person.
The four grands in a rare still moment, summer 2011.
susansmagicfeather copyright 2011 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved
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