Reflections

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  1. Y
    Yoko R.S.
    2 months ago

    What I am thankful for a gift I received in my childhood is; I sang a lot in a choir club when I was a junior high school student.
    Recently, from about one year ago, I began to sing again. I needed to do something to reduce heavy stress and depression. I sing with my piano or lyre playing. It blows away my feelings of desperation, sorrow,l and anxiety.
    When I sing gospels, tears come up often the time. I am grateful that I could learn not to hesitate to sing and be recorded/filmed in my youth.

    1. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 months ago

      Music,
      whether played,
      sung
      or heard,
      dear Yoko,
      heals as nothing else…
      I too,
      have a lyre.
      What kind is yours? ♥️

  2. Ose
    Ose
    2 months ago

    To perceive the suffering, to try to do something to ameliorate it, to possibly overcome fear, to be a good friend.

  3. Cathie
    Cathie
    2 months ago

    Gifts from my childhood…this one is easy.
    My father was a brilliant, Irish, lovable but tortured alcoholic, who continued to lose his fight for sobriety throughout his life.
    So at an early age I learned to love the broken. Not easy, but then the only other choice for me as a child, was not to love my dad.
    So I leaned to love the broken.

  4. Mary
    Mary
    2 months ago

    Love.

  5. B
    Beth P
    2 months ago

    Spiritual curiosity, humor, desire to learn and to connect and deeply know others.

  6. Robin Ann
    Robin Ann
    2 months ago

    My love of nature for sure is a gift from my childhood! I also think my nurturing way with loved ones is a gift as well. The nurturing way definitely comes from my Mom.
    My daughter seems motivated to do little things to improve her life since I visited. This makes me very happy.
    She will be coming up to Rhode island in July and we will plan to do more fun things together : )

  7. sparrow51014
    sparrow
    2 months ago

    My mother was a mercurial woman,
    but ever faithful to Nature . . .
    no matter what happened during the day
    she would wake us in the middle of the night
    so we could see the aurora borealis from the bathroom window,
    or drag us through the rain to peek into a rabbit’s nest at the edge of our property.
    She showed me the difference between lichens and old man’s beard,
    and brought me to a tidal cave,
    where we dropped small rock snails
    into the pastel mouths of beautiful,
    flowering sea anemones.
    She made me late for school one day,
    calling me back to the house
    to see a flock of cedar waxwings
    that had stopped to rest in one of cherry trees.

    My mother
    laid in bed for days,
    with various forms of malaise,
    and then would get up
    and show me how to make wreaths
    from sticks and bones and feathers and stones . . .
    how to gather mosses in the spring
    and to keep them alive in shallow pasta bowls
    with a little misting of water every day.
    She introduced me to my first lady slipper,
    my first jack in the pulpit,
    my first skunk cabbage.
    She cracked open rocks
    and showed me treasures of crystal inside,
    took me out to the foothills,
    and taught me how to dig for seashell fossils.

    That enthusiasm
    has stayed with me all these years . . .
    I still get up in the night
    to see the meteor showers
    and the fingernail sliver of a crescent moon.
    I still look for praying mantis and walking sticks
    in the garden,
    glory in finding a brand new deer,
    sleeping under one of my hostas,
    or rescue a tiny toad
    who has somehow
    found its way into my kitchen.
    While she lived,
    I would call her on the telephone
    whenever I found such wonders . . .
    those moments
    when we connected with Nature together
    were probably the happiest times I ever spent with her.

    I wish
    I had been able to tell her how grateful I am for this
    before she died,
    a rather self-centered,
    mean spirited old woman . . .
    I wish that I had told her
    that I remembered her goodness
    and her kindness. ♥

    1. pkr29022
      pkr
      2 months ago

      Sparrow, your memories of growing up with your mom are so poignant & bittersweet.
      Thank you for sharing. 🩵

      1. sparrow51014
        sparrow
        2 months ago

        My mother
        was a mixed bag,
        dear PKR,
        and it took me some years
        to pull out the gift she really was . . .
        thank you
        for letting me share this
        with love . . . ♥

    2. Mary
      Mary
      2 months ago

      Wow, Sparrow, she certainly did love nature, as I know you do.
      Thanks for sharing this. She really was amazing in her way.
      Family relations can be so fraught and tangled though.
      ✨💫

      1. sparrow51014
        sparrow
        2 months ago

        She was,
        dear Mary . . .
        a complicated person to be sure,
        but she had her bright spots. ♥

    3. Joseph
      Joseph McCann
      2 months ago

      I too experience joy when I spy a praying mantis, walking stick and will add dragon flies to this little list of impressive beings, dear Sparrow.

      1. sparrow51014
        sparrow
        2 months ago

        Oh yes,
        dear Joseph . . .
        how could I not include
        dragonflies! ♥

  8. Linda72766
    Linda
    2 months ago

    My father was a kind and giving man, generous with his time and money when people needed them. I believe my innate kindness comes from him,

  9. Charlie T
    Charlie T
    2 months ago

    Just like when I was a child, I wake up with a mixture of dread and excitement, in varying degrees. Not much has changed. After all, like an onion, I feel like I still have all those different versions of me layered one on top of the other.
    I guess the gift of my childhood, was that no one directed my daily life. So, I am okay with figuring out what to do with myself. I’m not waiting for someone to come along and guide or accompany me on an adventure or project. What may have been a form of benign neglect, has become my super power. As someone once told me, very matter of factly, everything comes with trade offs.
    The older I get, the more this rings true.

    1. Joseph
      Joseph McCann
      2 months ago

      Ying and yang.

    2. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 months ago

      ”As someone once told me, very matter of factly, everything comes with trade offs.
      The older I get, the more this rings true.”

      Indeed,
      dear Charlie . . . ♥

  10. pkr29022
    pkr
    2 months ago

    My love for music. We always had music playing in the background in my lively crazy house! There were 5 of us, kids, always something going on. I have my radio on 24 hours a day!
    My love for the outdoors. Growing up we were always outside, weather permitting. My mom use to kick us out of the house on beautiful sunny days!
    My love for exercise/movement. My mom was a great example of “staying in shape” & exercise. I grew up on a swim team; swam before school, 6am & after school. Exercise is so important to my mental & physical health.
    Thanks for this question, it reminded me of lots of good times from my childhood.😊
    Happy Merry May …..🌷🌼🪻🌸

  11. W
    William Burge
    2 months ago

    I moved a lot as a child and had to make friends often, and establish new routines in new homes, new rooms, new schools, new environments. It was difficult as a child, but as an adult this adaptability has created a lack of fear around change which has served my professional life enormously.

    1. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 months ago

      I too,
      moved around quite a bit as a child,
      dear William . . .
      although I didn’t enjoy it,
      it broadened my worldview
      and opened me to a vast array of diversity.
      Do you feel the same way? ♥

  12. Barb C
    Barb C
    2 months ago

    My younger sister and our shared memories! We’re visiting my sister and her husband in the beautiful San Juan Islands this weekend. They’re wonderful hosts and we’ve had so much laughter remembering things that happened when we were kids and hearing stories from our husbands.

    I also bring the person I am a a result of our parents and what they taught us, what they modeled in how they led their lives, as does my sister.

    A love of reading is definitely on that list and is such a wonderful and important gift. We’re relaxing this morning and all of us are reading. My mom had been a teacher and taught us to read early. We were swapping book recommendations and remembering books we loved as kids.

  13. Yram
    Yram
    2 months ago

    That tragedies can be a time of closeness.

    1. Mary
      Mary
      2 months ago

      That’s true Yram.
      They do bring people together.

  14. Carol Ann Conner
    Carol
    2 months ago

    This is a hard question for me but I will just say, from my childhood, I brought resilience.

  15. Elizabeth H67151
    Elizabeth H
    2 months ago

    Curiosity and love

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