What a glorious morning, the sun is shining, the wind is blowing and the fireplace is still on. Randy is outside clearing the branches which fell, due to the heavy amount of snow which fell on Thursday. Because of the weather, we have had more time than usual to be inside and talk. It has been nice to watch a movie at 5:30 in the afternoon, or make a sandwich at 2 in the afternoon, because we were working together on a house project. We got out of our “normal” schedule the past few days. A movie we watched on Saturday afternoon at home (which we just never do take the time to do that) was “Rumor Has It”. Now, maybe it is my age, and if it is, I apologize for spending so much time thinking about this, but once again, it just showed me that as we get older and desire our children to know what all is going on in our hearts and minds, it is sad to think that the children which we spent so much time trying to pour our hearts into, know so little about us. In the movie, the adult child, Jennifer Aniston, cannot understand why she is so different from her parents, feeling that she must be in the wrong family. Af the end of the movie, she is sitting there talking with her dad, telling him that she just doesn’t understand how he could be her dad, because of the difference. She tells him, “one example of how different we are is that you just drive so slow and I always drive so fast,” to which he responds, “I only drive slow when you are with me to keep you safe”.
In that moment I realized the actions that we, as parents, do, from the standpoint of just trying to do what we think is best for our children, whether they are 3 or 30. Sometimes, we don’t ever realize what our parents are thinking or why they do some of the things they do, unless we hear from someone else something about one of our parents. When I am in Corpus, I hear from people who know my dad, “that your dad is the best worker we have at the funeral home”, or” your mom is always the first to bring food to us when we are sick”.
So I am going to begin to day to be a little more caring in showing them that I do want to know about what they think regarding: certain movies, political views, what they do on a weekend, who are their best friends and why, what they would want to do if they could just escape for a weekend. Are we taking the time to really “know” our parents or do we just fill them in on what is going on in our lives. Beginning today I am going take an active interest in our conversations. I am going to ask them what they have been doing. Where did they go over the weekend? Who did they see? What is something that they are planning to do? And if they have been someplace, I will ask them about it…..and really try to listen and care. Sorry, Mom and dad or any other good friend that I have not taken the time to listen to them or ask them about what all is going on in their lives. Let’s all try to truly listen to people we care about and get involved in their lives and listen to their hearts. We all might be surprised at what we learn.
Chocolate Castles 