Generations

We need to remember across generations

that there is as much to learn

as there is to teach.

Gloria Steinem

It is no longer common to be living in the same city or town as our parents, grandparents or extended families.  Many children do not have the opportunity to meet other generations except on rare occasions.  Curiosity has driven families to turn to genealogical societies to track the family's heritage. 

As young adults, we feel as though we are finally leaving our parents behind, but this is far from the truth.  We bring generational habits or behaviors unknowingly with us.  Many of the beliefs or patterns we carry are the very ones impressed upon us as children.  We may be holding fears of not having enough, unable to show affection, and patterns of secrecy.

By breaking the chain, we can stop negative influence from passing any farther.  We can replace old patterns through tolerance, love, and conscious awareness.  Eventually, the change in actions can help in  maintaining better health, higher self-esteem, and happiness.  Through honest exploration we can become aware of generational limitations, dysfunctional emotional patterns, and unrealistic values.  We must become aware of our need to change in order to successfully create a new generational pattern.

Negative family patterns may seem normal to us while we are living with our family of origin.  It is not until we get out into the world that we notice the difference between families activities and belief systems.  Changes in our society also cause us to alter traditions.  Sunday family dinners are impossible if we are living in other cities, states, or countries.  Even holidays may have to be celebrated on different dates in order to accommodate family members.  Not wearing a dress to church may be offensive to some or even attending a Saturday night Mass.

The first step in changing is giving our selves permission to do so.  We don't need to feel guilty or shameful when our life choices alter old patterns.  Each generation is a pioneer into a future and the individual generations will leave a history, both negative and positive. 

It is important to honor and respect our elders, and to maintain some family traditions.  There is much to be learned from the past, but there is much to be discovered for the future.  Life is but change and we will always find our selves moving forward if we wish not to be stagnant nor redundant. 

 (Writing prompted by DAILY OM written by Madisyn Taylor)

Pondering Possibilities

 

 

 

 

 

"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

— Gloria Steinem, American journalist and political activist

 

 

The fountain in the back yard is bubbling while I quietly survey the thriving plants and vibrant flowers.  As I sip my first cup of coffee, my attention is quickly attracted to a large butterfly.  The wing span is so wide I at first think it must be hummingbird, but the structure is way too delicate.  I grab my camera in hopes of capturing its delicate image, but it is way too fast for me.  So I just sit and watch as it flits to and fro around the yard.  Such grace and ease it has.  Its delicate ease and beauty is engraved in my memory.

 

By now I am enjoying my second cup of java and have been noticing a noisy bird in the tree.  It is a dull gray color with a bulging belly.  It is not pretty like a cardinal or a blue jay or robin and most definitely is not a song bird.  It just screeches.  I wonder of its importance.

 

I am startled by still a different butterfly.  This one is smaller than the first I saw, but it is colored like a zebra.  It stays longer on the flowers and has lovely movements, but not nearly as graceful as the first I saw.

 

A butterfly lives for about a month.  It goes through an extreme transformation accepting all of its stages and changing environments.  It is no surprise a butterfly is a symbol for transition and is associated with the soul.

 

Our lives are much longer than a butterfly, but we too go through transformation from fetus to adulthood.   As human beings we adapt to various environments and present in different structures mostly without grace.  We also move through many metamorphoses developing emotional and spiritual values. 

 

As a grand finale to my coffee hour, a hawk  soars in the sky.  He is not a Red Tail Hawk like those found in Illinois.  His wings are much more decorated as he spreads them to fly.

 

So in contemplation, I ponder simple thoughts.  Did the butterfly have any awareness of me  as I watched perched in my chair?  Did the screeching bird sense I was a stranger in his yard?  As the hawk glides up in the sky, does he know I am near by?  If the answer is no to each of these thoughts, would it also be true God's presence is unrecognized as each moment of  life slips by ...