As I’ve watched my children,
and my grandchildren grow up
I am grateful that I have been around
to enjoy all the steps they have been taking…
And I look forward to enjoying
the steps they take from here…
and all the steps our great-granddaughter will me making.
Today’s blessing is about our children
and how time with them goes by so fast…
as I paraphrase the words of James M. Barrie
and a bit of wishful thinking…taken from the past.
Once you read the words…smile
as you let them rest upon your shoulder:
If we never put our babies to bed
they can’t wake up another day older.
It was a wonderful afternoon…one that would make any parent glad…
We spent it with our grandson Damien, his wife Trista,
our great-granddaughter Violet and Trista’s mom and dad.
They came to the cabin for a visit…yes, including their dog Ghost, the entire bunch
and to make things even more special…they brought along pizzas for lunch.
Adding to this beautiful afternoon…again I must assert…
Deborah made a salad to go with the pizzas and and eclair cake for dessert.
Getting a chance to know Trista’s parents was awesome…one we won’t forget
and one of the highlights for the old folks…was getting to hold Violet.
Holding Violet in our arms…we all felt energized, exhilarated and inspired…
I was blessed to walk around holding her for so long…my arms got tired.
She would cry and I’d walk and rock her to and fro…it’s a memory I shall keep
as she gazed up at me with her wide eyes, then slowly close them and fell asleep.
How we love moments like this…a moment when two people blend…
and how we wish we could stop time…so that moment would never end.
We have such a short time to hold our children, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren safe within our arms…
A short time when they are with us every minute
and we can keep them safe from harm.
So we learn to cherish these moments…
while we can still hold them in our arms
where, in the intimacy of the moment, we can enjoy their beauty and their charms.
There will come a day when Violet will be too big to carry in my arms…
when I’ll wish in the course of a rhyme
That, for a moment, just for a moment, we could go back in time…
To this particular day…when I was energized and inspired…
the day I walked and rocked and cradled my great-granddaughter
for so long
my arms got tired.
I am grateful every day this simple prayer is answered…
It’s a prayer I repeat every night with deference and grace:
“All I ask,” I whisper to the heavens
“Is for one more day in her embrace.”
Instead of finding someone to grow old with…
may we all break the mold…
and find someone to grow younger with
as together….we grow old.
I like to think our Creators once they finished creating our world
and humans they decided to build…
made sure we were born with hearts full of empty spaces…waiting to be filled.
Their plan was for us to be pure and innocent when we are young and new
with enough empty spaces in our hearts…to last our whole life through.
So when a person comes along…when into our life their love will play a part
they fill immediately one of the empty places in our heart.
We might always not feel it at first…with some people love will grow
until one day we look at them a little differently…and in that moment…we will know.
The beauty of this gift…its charm, its mystery…its grace
is we often times do not know who will come along and fill a space.
And when we stop every now and then to review who holds places within our hearts
we are immediately filled with pride
at the diversity and the beauty of all the love we find inside..
We are able to see clearly in the variety of this dispersal…
how love…is awesome….unlimited…and how love is universal
As we age and see all the people filling our empty spaces
we begin to understand…
how we are meant to love a multitude of people…
the way our creators had it planned.
We marvel at the wisdom of those creators.
Our respect and admiration for them we cannot hide…
For they knew to place the room where all our love is stored
next door to the room where our dreams reside.
So we can sit back and smile at the life we’ve lived
thanking our creators up above…
for coming up with such a beautiful way
to fill our hearts with love.
I am sad my parents are gone now…
that off their presence I am deprived…
but I remain grateful for the memories we made
when they were both alive.
And on those days I begin missing them
when I start out feeling rotten…
I think of them and all those memories…
too beautiful to be forgotten.
May we be blessed to remember how important it is
to make as many memories as we can with our friends,
with strangers who may become friends…
with our partners, our family…our wife…
Because it is every beautiful moments we share
and every memories we make…
that tell the story of our life
In spite of all his hoping and wishing…all the hours he would pray…
he watched the gleam dim in his father’s eyes and his memories fade away.
Even after his light went out…and he no longer knew his name…
when he was now a stranger…he’d visit just the same.
He would tell story after story…picked from their shared memory…
like the time his dad would read him books as he sat upon his knee.
Like the times they’d play catch…how he taught him how to swim…
of all the times they were together…just his dad…and him.
He reminded him how he loved to play games…
.ow it never mattered if he’d lose…or win.
He talked about all the thing’s they’ve seen..
and all the places they had been.
He would visit him for hours with him…
stories flowing out with ease…
feeling blessed to be sitting there…sharing a lifetime of memories…
If asked why he sits for hours with a person who no longer knows his name…
he looks up…smiles politely…his answer is always the same.
“I’m reminding him of all the fun we’ve had…
all the places we have roamed….
and since all these memories began with him…
I’m hoping they find their way back home.”
I have always loved Fairy Tales…
stories of adventures large and small…
For they set the groundwork for teaching me how life
is
the greatest adventure of them all.
May we be blessed to have the kind of friends in life
who have a way of making us feel happy and whole
who can reach down and touch our heart
and know the way into our soul.
He was walking alone in the park…when up ahead sitting on a bench he spied her…
He’s not sure exactly why…but he walked over and sat down beside her.
For a few moments he sat in silence…next to this old woman he’d never seen before
until they exchanged a smile…which seemed to open up a door.
They talked of clouds and trees and butterflies…how the sun shone off the creek…
and before he knew it he was meeting her on that park bench once a week.
She was sweet, and loving, kind and soft…she was old and she was tough
and in their time together she taught him the meaning of enough.
“When I think of the love I’ve had in life”, she’d say, “one touch was always enough.”
“When I am sad…to drive away the shadows…one sunbeam is enough.”
“When I look up in the night sky…the light of one star is enough.”
“When I linger in a garden…the aroma of one flower is enough.”
"When I’m walking in a forest…the shade of one tree is enough.”
“When I’m with my family and friends…one smile is enough.”
“When I look at all the happiness I’ve had…I know I’ve had enough
and If the only prayer I ever say is thank you…then I have prayed enough.”
“You see, I only have one life.” she told him. “if I live it right…once will be enough.
and If I should die tomorrow…well…then I’ve lived long enough.”
Their meetings would eventually come to an end…
she had finally lived long enough…
And though her death saddened him greatly
He knew when it came to her…he’d been given time enough.
Time enough to make a friend…and though losing her was tough…
He’ll always be thankful she taught him the meaning of enough.
He returns to their park bench every now and then..
when times are peaceful and happy or when they’re sad and rough…
To remember his friend and to remind himself…
how in lif… he has truly been blessed enough.
