A Few Lessons More I Have Learned In This Life...For The Loves Of My Life...My Children!

(1) Never, ever give up!
You just never know what’s around the corner. Sometimes, but not always, it can be just what you may never have expected something that leaves you singing praises to God! Something that you know only God himself could have done and no one else. At times it may not always be this way but you must know that also comes with a purpose, if only to teach us to be stronger and tougher. You sometimes have to stand back and just wait for the purpose to be revealed and it will, but your heart has to be open as well as your mind! You can not learn if you are not open minded.
(2) Expect The Unexpected!
When you think that you know just what life is going to throw you and you have it all figured out, something else comes your way totally unexpected.It catches you off guard and it throws you on your a$$.I think it’s Gods little way of saying, hey now, your not dead yet, stop getting so set in your ways, let’s go, there is a lot more to be done here! At times this unexpected event can be something that again makes you question God’s plan, do not! It’s his plan not yours, remember that! Keep it sacred, your going to need it!
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(3) We Never Stop Learning, Never!
Never be a know it all, your not! On this beautiful planet called earth, there is no one that knows it all from the very brightest of scientists to the discovered genius's of our times, we will never know it all. Only God himself in heaven is all knowing we must learn this. Our elders have so much to teach us but we must be willing to learn from them. The wisest beings ever known, learned not alone but from others. We must always be open to learning something new. This great concept is what makes us wise as we grow older.
(4) At Times Choose The Not So Traveled Path!
It may be just that, the not so traveled path and others may try to persuade you against it, but choose it anyways. Not always will you follow but have to make the choice to lead, you will know in your heart which is the right path because your heart always, always knows! This is why God, in his ever so awesome design, gave us this organ to work together with our mind as one. Choose it no matter the consequences, if you know that it is right and just and do not falter. Do not waiver from your path.You may have to guide your way around some obstacles but that’s all in the learning it teaches you to be willing to change and give just a little and to still accomplish your goals.
(5) Never Let Anyone Tell You That You Can’t!
You can and you know that, so don’t let someone else tell you that it is impossible (yes that is another lesson, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, NOTHING!) It may take everything you have and at times you may thing you don’t have what it takes, you do! Don’t ever fall prey to defeat! Always give it your all, especially if it is your dream. The light bulb wasn’t invented in hours and we didn’t put a man on the moon in days and yes people said, “it was impossible!”….how do you like me now! That is what you say when you accomplish your dreams and leave everyone else standing there in heir own dust! Because there is nothing that can’t be done! It takes hard work and perseverance! You can’t stop in the middle, you must see it through till the end. How can you see the end if there is no beginning I ask?
(6) When Life Knocks You Down, Get Back Up!
When you try your hardest and give it your all and life knocks you down, stand back up brush yourself off and keep on going! Laugh your way through it, it’s just that, something to laugh about, don’t let things get you down, let them make you smile, no matter how bad they are, you are just learning, you are on your path and you are giving it your all, what could be bad? Bad is a thought we ourselves create out of a learning and living experience.If it was supposed to be all good all the time, we apparently stepped off the bus at the wrong stop and you may have to get back on and get off somewhere else, not sure where that may be.This is life and I’m sure where I’ve been standing for over 45 years, it darn straight hasn’t been easy!
(7) Nothing Is A Panic Situation!
Panic is a label we assign to any given time in our life where we are weak and just are not focused enough to be able to stop and think before we act. A moment of weakness of which I have had many! I tend to have been one who has had many moments of panic in my life. Life has taught me that there is no time for this shit, no time at all! As I age and through the love and help of those that love me so dearly, I am overcoming this weakness that I have. Because yes I am still learning myself! And yes I do still at times panic! Panic has no purpose when you consider the outcome. Nothing gets accomplished at all and anything can happen usually none of which is good. So stop and think it through if you only have seconds or minutes it may save you a lifetime of grief! No situation or great idea has ever formed out of panic. Exercise control. Your children are watching and so is everyone else.
(8) Family Is all We Have Our Most Priceless Treasure
When all is said and done there are no humans on this earth more important than these ones. No friend, no boyfriend, NOBODY! The ones that ride the storm right at your side are the ones you call your family. I’m not saying that your family is always comprised of just blood relatives because it may not be, and often is not. It is the ones that have proven themselves over and over again no matter what the cost to them but merely out of their love for you. You will always know these people. They do not just appear this way they are this way. Family will disagree with you, if they know you are going to harm yourself, no matter the cost, but merely out of love they will tell you like it is( in the great wisdom of my Aunt), God designed it this way. But family is family and families should always be our love, our strength, or support, and our rock when we are facing a storm. There should be nothing but kindness, love and mercy when it comes to the ones we love. In the same light they must prove themselves as being these things over and over again. Honest, trustworthy, unfailing, giving, loving, forgiving and supporting. These are the ones that make up our families and family members change, they come and they go but they always return when they are true!
Some of these things I may tell you, you already know, some you may have not thought of in this light. If you already know then God has blessed you and you are on the path! Some you may not and I hope I have passed on some valid truths that you may be open to incorporating into your life and thus changing it for the better, God will bless you either way, he just does that! I have learned so many things in his life and I am always learning. Its a process. Now that I am the mother of teens I sit back and just watch and listen and remember what my Aunt Peg used to call me when I was young, “Little Miss Know It All!” I was about their age and I really thought that I had it, I thought I knew it all. I have come to learn that it is part of life, it’s a phase we all go through. Beginning in the teen age years and ending God knows when. I say that because my children range in age from 13 to almost 29 yrs old. Making me just a young sweet thing as my Aunt used to say. We never stop learning, some of us just think we have it all concurred at certain points and, WE DON’T! That’s when life knocks us down and we get up and keep going.
So many times lately and in my life I have seen God’s work over and over again and seen all the above lessons played out, again and again. It never stops and it keeps on repeating and repeating as if he’s saying, you didn’t get this one right, here it is again. Or just that you know this one, lets see if you have learned your lesson from our first teaching, let’s practice it. It’s a test, the test of life. That is what it means to age and become wise. Because the best of life’s lessons are learned all along the way.And we learn that the best lessons don’t come from a book or something that you read, they come from what we learn from life and from the ones we love, from our friends and from our colleagues, our mothers, our fathers and sisters and brothers and the ones that we travel this life beside. It’s hard, it will never be easy although at times we rest and sit back and enjoy it, life’s next lesson is right around the corner, just waiting. May that be good or bad we must face it and never run from it.
I believe that my strengths come from 4 people in my life more than any, my Great Grandmother Jennie, my Dear sweet Aunt Peg and my best friend, Sara and of course my husband, Joe. They haven’t always thought I was listening but I always, always was. I may have gotten upset with them at times but  my love never failed for them, ever. They may have said something I didn’t want to hear, just as I have, but still my love never failed for them. I have learned so much as well from my mother. That strong means you just don’t give up until it is your time to give up! Just as I didn’t give up on her. I listened! Another lesson we must learn, that love is about listening with an open heart and mind. Sometimes it’s not about what we want, but about what they want, they are not always one in the same. And I believe that when people love one another they will respect these wishes and honor them. That is after all what love is.
We have been thrown a few hard balls lately, I think I caught them and I think I am dealing quite well and I think I am learning. Also we have been dealt a few Aces and we are basking in their greatness if only just for a while. My mother is talking and she is moving her right arm and her right leg….take that one and contemplate on that for awhile. Above all odds and out of the goodness and graciousness from God we have a blessing, a miracle. Yet another that I have seen in my life. All the more proof that there is a God! We are blessed and that coincidences are not just that! They are all apart of the plan. So Hospice is leaving our house for now. But in comes yet another challenge for our family, see how that goes! In comes baby booties and crying and yes teen pregnancy. Not a curse but yet just another blessing. Not part of our plan but apparently part of God’s. Its OK we can deal we are strong and we are a family and we will go on together and we will deal with it just as we always have, together. Our family will band together and will stay strong and will triumph again! I am at peace with it! My daughter is my love and my love is very precious to me and I will support her and help her to learn to also be strong and we will become strong together. Not always can I get my children to sit still, be silent and just listen to me. Sometimes it doesn’t come out just the way I had planned it to and I’m hoping that this is just how I hoped it would “roll” as they say. I hope that for a moment they can sit and just read, because boy they like to read the things on the computer. It’s not Myspace or Facebook, it’s “Mom’s Space.”And it’s Mom’s heart. It’s what I have on my mind at any given time of the day, it’s the love I have for them, each and every one of them, no matter what or when or through whatever it is they have done, as I have said before it is unfailing and unwavering, it is strong and it is a deep love for each.
What started all this was a beautiful video I saw today that brought back memories from my childhood and my great grandmother. Took me to raise me at 85 years old, talk strong, because I was family, her love never failed me. Even at the end she told me, I need you to be a big girl and to help out because I have to leave here now. I’m sick and I’m old and I’m tired, I can’t stay any longer. I guess we get that way. And she assured me that she would always be with me watching over me even from afar. Till this day I look up when I get in trouble, first to God and then to her. That is where my strength comes from. Anyways when I was little she would rock me and brush my long hair and sing to me, most often church hymns or old musicals that she had heard. So that is what started this all and I am glad. I know that she has found yet another way to reassure me that it will be OK! Everything will be OK. She used to sing this song to me as a little wee girl and I sang it to my children and here it is again!
You’ll Never Walk Alone!
When you walk through a storm
Keep your chin up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At he end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone.