Having a Day
3 weeks ago
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Parents
I attended my grandmother's funeral today and traveled to a small town in central Utah for her interment. Of all the precious moments, the most poignant for me was watching the love and kindness radiating from my mother's face as she spoke of her own mother. Seeing her as a child and feeling the love she feels for and from her mom somehow made me view my relationship to her and my dad differently. I couldn't help but consider the inevitable days when I will stand and pay my tribute to them and face the remainder of my life without them. I can't help but want them to know now how grateful I am for them and how much I love them. I feel moved to pay my tribute while they are still here so they can live the remainder of their lives and die with the knowledge that they are loved and that their efforts were not wasted and will not be forgotten. What else can you offer to the people who have already given you everything they have?
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4 comments:
I've wondered this too. I think the best offering of gratitude we can give to good parents is to to honor them with our lives and choices, and leave a legacy of our own.
Yes. Whenever we talk about what our parents have done for us, my dad says you pay it forward. I can see, though, how the spirit of Elijah works to compel people to do genealogical and temple work, because here our parents, grandparents, and everyone before them have given us so much. It would be so selfish to sit around trying to enjoy our blessings instead of taking the time to extend to them the blessings they can't get without our help. I'm actually grateful to have that means of serving them, because they deserve some kind of recognition and service.
So true. In the end, all we really have are our posterity. They're the only ones that will care about us when we're almost leaving this world. To have no posteriy is almost like never living.
Thank you for your beautiful comment. I think I see my children differently because of my mother's passing, as well. I value the small moments. The "extraordinary" moments that appear so "ordinary". I love you too. Mom
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