A visit from the grandparents

The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.
- Ring Lardner

My in-laws visited over the weekend, and it was a grand time to be had by all. My son is now at the age where he’s just starting to understand that his grandparents are really cool features in his life, lavishing time, attention and praise on him. The last time his grandparents visited, it was a little too much excitement for him to really enjoy – this time, though, was different. The comparison between visits helped me to understand just how much, and how quickly, my son has grown … and how fast my wife and I have grown with him. I also realized how fortunate I am to be embraced as a son by my wife’s parents and as a brother by my wife’s sister. It’s odd to think of it this way, but the truth is that the ‘immediate’ family I grew up with lives half a world away and feels far from ‘immediate’ most times; while a family created the moment my wife and I said ‘I do’ has, over the years, become my more immediate family.

Ordinary as sacred

The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.
- Thomas Moore

If Nature is a part of all things, and all things are a part of Nature, and Nature is sacred; then it stands to reason that all things are sacred, and nothing is ordinary. I think routine can confuse this, however, by causing us to take the sacred for granted. Everything we do and encounter leaves an imprint of some sort on our soul and, if we take anything with us at all when we leave this world, it’s the imprints and changes made to our souls during our lives in this world. The ‘little’ things we do, and how we do them, add up – as do the things we don’t do, and how we evade them. Housework, for example, could be seen as an ordinary, meaningless routine that simply represents something that has to be done. It can also be a form of moving, living prayer – a prayer of gratitude for having a home, for example. The same could be said for cooking or even eating a meal, a living prayer of gratitude for the food itself. When looked at in that light, how these things are done is also important; and nothing about them should be taken for granted.

Sunset reflections

A picture I took a while back, that has been creeping into my thoughts of late, for some strange reason I’ve yet to figure out.

Owl

In silence you fly,
eyes sensing light in darkness,
a merciful judge -
and boon to humanity,
your wise gaze is known by all.
- Fallingleaf

What we don’t have

He who is not contented with what he has, will not be contented with what he doesn’t have.
- Socrates

I know a man who seems to embody this principle. He has amassed much in his life, is proud and somewhat vain; but for all he has achieved in his sixty plus-years of life, true happiness has remained elusive for him. The closest to happy I’ve ever known him to be is when he’s either hunting or bragging about what he has … both activities, for various reasons, only provide him with an empty sort of happiness akin to the empty calories people choose to try to nourish themselves from when reaching for a sack of potato chips. I’ve known this man for a long time, and I’ve never known him to act differently – he is, to me, a sad person despite the fact that he can brag for hours-on-end about the things he has.