Month: March 2016

A GOOD DAY FOR PARENTS

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Spring apple blossoms 003

There might be a better gift that a parent can receive that will fill their heart with joy, but I find it is hard to think of one. This morning I received an alert that one of my sons had a birthday on Facebook, and would I like to write to him and wish him well?  Of course, I thought, I had already sent an e-card, but I would do it.  But I found that some other people had gotten ahead of me already. The outpourings on the page showed me that I wasn’t the only one who had warm feelings for this man.

We have 5 sons, and 2 daughters.  Three of the sons don’t show up on FB much, altho their families do, but the other two sons post often. And the daughters? When any of them have a birthday online, it makes us as  parents proud that so many others appreciate them, and the lists of well wishers are so long and so loving, that it brings great joy to us. We must have done something right. The diapers, and the crying in the middle of the night, the endless washing of clothes, the PTA meetings, all are long forgotten, and here we are.  Our children are all fully grown, they are loved and respected by their families and friends, and we can smile and say Thank You, for all of our many blessings today.

Happy Easter, everyone.

A SPECIAL DAY

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Our special day in Florida 2016

On a wonderful sunny day, March 10th, 2016, we are here to celebrate a very special occasion, the gathering of a strong family, the “Strong” family.  I know that we don’t all carry that name all of the time, but we all have one thing in common.  We love and support the spouses that were born with it.

Names may change but the love and connections that we have with each other are an enduring thing.  We all can remember our parents with great pride and respect. They were the mainspring of our lives from the time we were born.  No matter what was going on in their lives, we were the focus of their attention, our schools, our church, our friends, all of these were at the forefront of their lives every day, and that never changed no matter how old we got.

As a group our ages span the length of twelve years.  Nevertheless we basically have had the same experiences, seen the same family experiences as children, watched the world as it changed from a world at war in the 1940’s, and evolved into the world we live in today. Our lives have gone in many different directions, we have accomplished many things that we could never have even imagined as children, and now here we are.

We are sitting together, all eight of us, in the sunshine in Florida and that in itself is a wonderful and miraculous thing.  For a few months of each year we live within a few miles of each other, and we can get together to celebrate it.  All families are not so lucky, but we are, and we can appreciate it as we break bread together today.

So I salute you, the “Strong” family.  We have come a long way together. Our individual families will follow us with the knowledge that we love and appreciate them just as our parents did for us.

We are a lucky bunch, the “Strongs”, and we will be looking forward to our gathering next year.

SPEAKING OF CURRENT POLITICS

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Maybe our main problem is that our current candidates are a reflection of what some Americans have become.  As a people we are expecting the candidates to be much more principled in everyday life than we are.  And when they fail as humans do, we see everything in strict “either this or that” instead of realizing that in a democracy we have to learn to compromise. We expect the candidate to be all our way in everything or we denigrate them. It is better to be an independent to my way of thinking, and to pick out the person that fits most closely regardless of party.

On a lighter note, I wish to pay tribute to a grandson who was replying on Facebook to a disgusting picture of some desecrated graves.  He said, “One person with a spray can, that does something horrible, is just one person. Showing kindness, love, and respect makes your life matter.  Showing it to others lets them know you believe that they matter.  If we all do this it won’t take long to understand that this Planet is far too small for hate.  The need for and the ability to love is in us at birth, but hate is taught and learned.”

As a society we need to listen to the voices of our young people, who remind us of our better natures.