The Older You Get...

It's funny how Life brings you through the ups and downs. You learn lessons with each passing day. The older we get the more we learn and hopefully we retain these very special teachings.

I am not talking about the things that you learn in grade school or college. This has nothing to do with Language Arts or Algebra. It's the intrapersonal and interpersonal things that we learn about ourselves and others. I have to say that the psycology of it all is quite intriguing.

As I age I have learned a lot about my family. Why they did certain things and how they love me in their many ways. My mother first and foremost always put me first and loves me as only a mother can. For my good and bad, ups and downs. She has always been my rock and my light in the storm. My father, well, he has his ways I suppose. I just haven't seen them often. His shows of love came in the form of purchased, requested goods (and animals...). There is my Step Father, whom in the past I felt didn't care so much for me but as the years have past I have seen him in a new light. He's been silently supportive. When I needed him the most, he was there in a big way. I don't know that there is anything I could ever do or say to repay him.

I now move onto my friends. Boy, have I learned lessons from them. Who to trust, who to let in, who to keep away, who to show my weaknesses and how to support them in all those very ways as well. My friends are very often my very lifeline. They have seen the best and worst of me and I have see the same of them. I choose very carefully whom I let in. I have been burned in the past and very badly I may add. I have 2 that remain extremely close to my heart and when I think of them I feel nothing but unconditional love. They have carried me when I needed it and at times I have carried them. I will forever cherish them and the memories of them I have!

Children. Boy that is a tough one. They look so soft and sweet and innocent. And they are. They just go through less soft, sweet and innocent times. They are much more resillient than they seem. They are the reason most people live. It is devastating to loose one through miscarriage or other reasons (the latter has been personally experienced by this writer). My babies are the center of my world. My everything, my all, my reason to live every day. They are hard work, sometimes frustrating but when they finally look into my eyes and say "I love you" and give me a great sticky kiss, it's all worth it. The pregnancy, the delivery and the years of rearing all worth it in that single second of peace brought by peering into your babies room and seeing them peacefully sleeping. And then the cat knocks over the lamp in the livingroom and wakes the baby. That is the first lesson-lock the cat in a room where he or she cannot wake the baby by doing some sort of cat acrobatics. (Not all of them are as stealthy as advertised...James Bond, my cat is not!!)

I have been fortunate to learn many things in my years. The best of all has been Love. Love for and from family, friends and ones own children. Love is what truely makes the world go round. It's what we all seek in the end. Maybe not always romantic love. Sometimes it manifests in acceptance and comfort. But it's still called love. True love is unconditional. It doesn't have anything to do with the size of a bank account, a persons looks or any of that other stuff.

I believe that every person has more than one soulmate. Some have one, some have many. I am lucky to have a few. They are people who fill my soul and complete my spirit. Soulmates come to us in many forms. Friends and mates alike, children even. You never know who may be or even is a soulmate until they have been tested. You cannot and will not be the tester. Life itself is the tester. Your chosen God, weather the Christian God or another set of dieties, will do the testing. You will see a persons true colors and you are able to decide weather they fit the shoes of soulmate. If a person is tested and found wanting, don't force the issue of finding a soulmate because you wish for one. That is not a person you wish to call by that title, you will only have your heart broken.

I have learned so many great things in my life and hope that this particular education never ends. Until I draw my last breath, I hope to keep learning from the world and people around me.