If there is anything we have learned from the last week, it is that life can be tiny and fragile and precious and dear. There is no guarantee that we will get our Someday. Perhaps the greatest monument we can build to the lives that have been senselessly lost, is to live our best and biggest dreams now. Let’s not wait for the Someday around the corner. If there is an area of our life where big dreams and hopes are overflowing, let’s implement them right now today. Let’s find a way to start living our boldest vision now.
My children are my absolute dream. My grandchildren are coincidentally the same ages as my little kids – so it feels like I don’t get to focus on becoming an outstanding granny because I am still focused on trying to learn to be a great mommy. No matter. I want my arms and my hugs to reach out wider to encompass all these little ones I am privileged to know. I will not get another chance to be granny to them again. I may have other grandchildren, but these little ones are here and now – simultaneously with my own little kids. And so, the task of learning to be a fantastic grandma fits in with the things I’m learning today.
My goals for my life are not rocket science. I don’t have plans to walk on the moon. I have plans to work my farm, raise my children, and send missives of love and support to my grandchildren living down in California. It is not a grand life. It is my beautiful, fragile and precious life – with chubby cheeks here at home I get to pinch, and chubby cheeks I get to love from afar. That is the sum total of my grand scheme. I have some great examples in my life of mothering and grand-mothering, and some sustainable farmers we are learning from as well. These people are my mentors and friends.
Together, we are making this tiny corner of the world a focus of love and gratitude. And that is all. And that is enough. And that is so much more of a blessing than I dreamed for my life when I was small. Each day is a gift. Each chubby cheek is a gift. Gratitude for my here and now, and for the tomorrows in my dreams, and for the hugs from little ones that mean the absolute and total world to me fill me with joy. Every grand and glorious dream I have is summed up in the hugs from my children.
This has been a tragic week for our nation. What are you doing to heal your own heart? How are you moving forward to joy? How are you caring for you, or the little ones in your life?
photo from here