Heat Wave

Heat Wave

Upside down

Tonight as I sat watching my granddaughter sing in her chorale concert I learned that her school is doing away with their music program.  Teachers have not been paid in a month and our governor refuses to pass a budget so schools can pay their bills. 
I personally feel young minds need structure n learning to help them focus. 
I also think that Americans need to take back control when politicians who make bad choices and hold our children hostage.  There is no shame in politics today and no honor.  I am sure our governor is getting his paycheck unlike our teachers who are suffering at the hands of a dictator.  I have hated politics most of my life but you are messing with our grand children’s education that we have worked long and hard to pay for with our taxes. 
People of Pennsylvania unite and spread the word about being held hostage by our governor.  Tell anyone and everyone until he is impeached or resigns.  If any one of us did what he is doing to our children and others in his way, we would be fired.  Help get our children’s education back.

Watching your grandchildren blossom is a blessing like no other.  Holding them when they are first born makes you realize that love is not enough to describe the feelings you experience.  Following their milestones, being there when they fall and allowing them to pick themselves up is how we grandparents teach them because we know they can.  Recently my first grandchild realized she is at the “end” of her high school career.  She is feeling nostalgia about seeing all this end because the future is uncertain.  While we have no doubt she will do great things with her life, she remains unsure. 
I can recall those feelings of excitement and fear mixed together like a knot in my stomach.  Taking one day at a time to enjoy life as it comes is good advise but it is not until you wake one day to realize those days have slipped by.  They may have been fleeting but are there to enjoy in your memories.
Go and find your memories knowing we love you and will always be in your heart.  Love Pap n Gram.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Comfort

Comfort comes in knowing that you are cared about and loved.  It requires that human touch that reaches clear to your heart and soul.  The never ending connections that bring you peace inside.  I remember as a child moving back to my father’s home town and having an instant bond with my one cousin.  She and I went to school, church and spent unlimited amounts of time together playing and growing up.  I could always count on her to listen to me and we were best friend as well as cousins.

Knowing she was always there to watch my back has been a source of comfort through out our childhood and our adult lives.  Although we live in different towns our lives have intertwined as we had our children, watched them grow, and even sharing our own grandchildren.  This picture was taken at my mother’s 80th birthday party when my cousin came to share her love for my Mom and family.  I knew I could count on her to not only come but make sure her aging parents were there to help share the love.

Our party was at the church that my Mom attends and we all did not want to see the party end.  This picture was taken and is one that shows the love of a family that extends through the generations.  Our closeness is a bond that began as children but will still be there till we grow old and pass on.  We still know just by a look or a touch that our family is always there for one another through the good times and the bad.  Just as God taught us as children the more we know him, the more we will understand his love toward us.  Learning to see his love in our everyday details teaches us to walk in love and be imitators of God.  Our bonds have renewed the spirit in our minds that our comfort comes from the Lord who created us.

Graceful Aging

It is with love that I get to help my Mother grow old gracefully.  I used to wonder what that meant as I was growing up but I also got to see my mother model the role with my grandmother.  She always found time to help her or hold her up in her not so good times.  All my life my best role model is the Mother that God gave to me.  Her laughter is contagious, her smile lights up a room and she is the best listener I know.  She offers her words of wisdom whether I ask for it or not but many times even when I am not asking for it, her words make me think before I jump in and make a mistake.  Her compassion for everyone is amazing.

Her spirit, honesty, values and stories continue to amaze me.  She does her best to continue to fight even though she realizes that her body is growing weak.  To me that makes her fearless as she sees her mortality as not an end but a beginning.  I know she longs to be with my father who has long gone before her but her job to help form us and the next generation was not complete.  She takes that duty very seriously and her smile is always eager to visit as she witnesses the newest generations growing up before her.

God had true wisdom when he gave us mothers and gave women the strength to give back to their families tirelessly.    As I helped her do basic things this weekend she kept thanking me and telling me that God knew she needed girls and was so blessed to have three that she is so proud of.  She told me she didn’t feel she was aging gracefully but no longer had enough fight to care.  To me she will always be gracious and graceful as she never stops sharing her heart and her love……even if it is only her words or a smile.  Thanks Mom.