the trail less traveled: family

I'd say that the most difficult thing about moving to Texas is the separation from family. We miss our son and his wife terribly and even though we didn't see my brother and family or Papawizzy's sister and family a lot, just knowing that we could gave comfort.

In this day and age when people are so disconnected and independent I think our family is pretty close knit. I was recently reading a book by Joel Salatin, and he talked about the disconnection of family in our society. Between the little ones going to daycare and the grandparents going to retirement homes or off to travel in their RV's, there is little time for families to build the strong bonds necessary to prosper in this crazy world.

Do you like to spend time with your family? I know that many of our children's friends think it's weird that we all like to spend time together. Some people say, "well if you knew my family", and to that I would say that we are not perfect people either. We all have issues, but to think that we should not try to get along with those that God has purposely connected us to, I think is pretty selfish. Is it not worth the investment to take care of our own children, and parents when necessary? It saddens me to think about how many children have been institutionalized from the time they were six weeks old! How can we instill our values into a child who is separated from us for eight to ten hours a day?

As I get older I also think about how our society treats our elderly, and how we've begun to behave. Society says we all need to retire to make room for the younger worker, and that may have some merit, but what do we go on to? You see the bumper stickers on the RV that reads, "we're spending our children's inheritance!" Well that's funny and all, but how do you think the kids feel? I don't want to do that to my kids, I want to leave a legacy of honor and caring for my children. And I hope that that is what my children want for me. I don't want to be shuffled off to a "retirement home" to spend my final years seeing my family when they decide to take the time to come see me. And to think that the older generation has nothing to offer society is downright rude. We have experience and wisdom that should be tapped.

Our society doesn't want to deal with anything that may require a little effort. If you are under 16 or over 65 you have limited worth. And we wonder why there is no value placed on life!? When your too young or too old to work and you're are no longer pretty (why do you think cosmetic surgery is so big?) where do you go? Daycare or retirement home.

Anyway, I'm thankful for my family and hope that we will continue to be close. I hope to leave a legacy to our future generations that is full of hope and prosperity.