I write to my grandson everyday. I fill
pages for him with stories and advice and all kinds of things that I wish to
share with him. I do this for me, because it allows me to experience being a
grandmother in that I am doing something for my grandson. I do this for him, so
that someday he will have a legacy of who I was and how much I cherished him
from afar.
As I was sitting at my desk today contemplating what to
share with him I came across this meme
This
inspired me to write to him under the "advice" column of my daily
letter.
Advice for you Walter from your Mamma-rae:
"Don't Give Up"
Walter, this is a powerful
statement; “don’t give up”. There are
always challenges in life. There are
things that go wrong in life. There
things that totally through you down and knock you out. That is the nature of
life.
Even when things are in the
midst of going really well along comes some catastrophe that can shatter all
your dreams and illusions of what the possibilities are or might be.
And some people are destroyed
by those events. They live in the trauma
of that shattering event for the rest of their lives. And others, pick up the pieces and the broken
bits and figure out a way to make something new with what remains.
Neither path is easy! The former is filled with the excruciating
pain of reliving the traumatic event, the fear, the sorrow, the anger, the
suffering. That is surely not an easy
life to lead!
The other path requires
facing facts and resolving to do whatever it takes to somehow move forward
beyond the tragedy. It requires courage
to face what is the reality of the tragedy with honesty and then bravely march
forward into the unknown.
What I wish for you dear
grandson is that courage. May you always
be able to pick up the broken pieces of whatever life throws at you and create
something new and whole and good and worthwhile.
Your loving Mamma-rae.
And as I wrote it I realized something profound. I have to live my life as an example of how
to deal with tragedy if I want to be a role model for my grandson.
The tragedy we share, is that we are never going to
reclaim the time together that has been taken from us. But I can by my actions show him that even
this tragedy can be an inspiration to creating something of value. As I write to him as an alternative to seeing
him, I show him that I took the initiative to remain connected to him under
less than ideal conditions.
I also plan to show him by life stories, my adventure
tales, my poetry and art work which I share with him, that I found a way to
create a good life out of the tragedy of estrangement. This is the legacy I wish to give my
grandson.
Renate Dundys Marrello
Renate Dundys Marrello
2014 - 02 - 24
My Facebook Reflections Page
My Facebook Reflections Page
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There are so many children without parents or grandparents, that it has meant the world to me to mentor a few of them. Granted, it's not "my own" but all children are God's children, and all children are ours.
ReplyDeleteI love the book you are writing for your grandchild. I hope one day you can share it with him. In the meantime, consider sharing with all the children in the world who would love to know you and have you in your life! This is what I have started doing, and it makes a world of difference.
Why all children love me except my own is a mystery I will never know, but I can still make a difference in this world even if it's for a few lost children who have no family at all. Putting ourselves where we are wanted makes all the difference in the world to them, and this changes everything. We do have value in this world, if not for one, then possibly for many.
Correction: "consider sharing with all the children in the world who would love to know you and have someone like you in their life! "
ReplyDelete