A family trip pt2

I could see how ideas and points of view that were expressed decades ago, when I was just a few years old, affected people that had children and grandchildren at the current gathering.

This time I was more towards the middle and having learned a lot more about being open to different ideas, I could really get where each person was coming from whether older or younger than me. Before, I pretty much discarded things that were outside of my paradigm. Now, I look for ways to expand my paradigm by what others say.

Looking at what I learned about the members of my family while spending some time with them, I can see the impact that their thoughts and beliefs have had in shaping a lot of my own, even though many of them were just seeds planted and then left to fend for themselves. I see reflected in all of their hearts and minds great tolerance and understanding.

I can see ideas that my great grandparents and their siblings used to have that affected the choices my grandmother made. I can see things that she said and did that shaped what my mother and her siblings did. I can see things that they have said and done that shaped how me, my brothers and my cousins have and are turning out. And I can see habits and patterns of behavior that we got from them that are shaping the youngest of us.

Though I have spent much time cut off from them, by my own choice, I could not be who I am today if it were not for them. I would like to be able to take credit for many of the fine ideas that I have about who I am and what I want to accomplish. But the simple truth is that the environment and ideas of those who cared for me when I was younger drove me towards the decisions that I make now.

Almost every one of them is either retired from, currently in or working at getting into a service field, something that helps make other people's lives better. A sample of their chosen fields are medicine, social work, corrections and the armed forces. All have a different idea of exactly how to do it. But, each gets fulfillment from being in service to others. Is it any wonder that my goal is to devote a portion of my life to making the world a better place?

I didn't spend all that much time talking. Most of it was spent listening, observing and absorbing. A great deal of life experience happened in a short period of time. There is quite a bit more that I can learn from this short trip that we took, but first I will need to spend more time processing it.


Happy 2014