MEMORIES ..... yours alone to keep

L to R - My Mum - Judith, my grandmother - Amy,
my great-grandmother - Eva, my great great
grandmother - Alice (Gigi).
Taken - December 25, 1958 (3 months before I was born).

Do you ever look at a photo and think how much time has passed and all that has happened since it was taken?

Do you ever wonder where all that time went?

Do you ever think about the people in the photo and ponder all the memories that you have, both good and bad?

Do you ever wish that you could have a time back in your life?

Do you ever wish that you could go back to a simpler time in life, a time when things were not so complicated ?

So much has happened in my life since the top photo was taken.  The above photo was taken 3 months before I was born, 3 months before I came into this world.  4 generations of one family, hard to believe.

The next photo was taken when my twin sister and I were about 11, almost 12 and then there were 5 generations.  My great great grandmother, the lady sitting in the middle of the photo was 99 years old when she died.  I still marvel that we had 5 generations living in our family at the time. Such a blessing.

We were to be blessed twice more in our family to have 5 living generations - once when my niece was born and the next time was when my great nephew was born.

I look at this fig tree and wonder ....

How old is this tree?

How long has it been here?

What has it seen in it's lifetime?

What struggles did it have to get to where it is now?

Was it tended or just left to grow on it's own?

What is it's life expectancy?

Will it be there forever ?

Will it eventually die ?
Will it be alive long after me ?

When I look at photos of my children as little ones, I think of all the time that has gone by.  I look at my son here and he is so little .....   Everything is so new and fun to him.  He is learning about life.  He is experiencing things that will help him to find his place in the world.  To find out who he is and where he is going.

This young baby is now a man, has a son of his own and will be 28 this year.  How the years fly by.

My middle child, my son who was 1 year old in this photo, will be 26 in a few weeks.  Our children are always our babies, I think that's just how mother's feel about their children. 

All we hope for our children is that they will have a good life, that they will do some good in the world.  That they will grow to be good people who will be able to function in the world as we know it.

I just want my children to be better than I am.  To live a worthwhile life, with purpose.  That they will have good characters and care about others.

Looking at these photos and thinking about my children makes me realise how no man is an island.  We all share our lives with others.  We are influenced by others as to what we do in our lives.  We influence others by our actions, by the way we treat others.

Do we think about the impact that we have on the lives of others, either for good or for bad.  Hopefully it is for good.

All we can hope is that we have taught our children enough that they will be the kind of people that we want them to be.

I look into the faces of my little ones in these photos and I get a warm feeling inside as I remember how beautiful they were at that age.  How gorgeous and cuddly they were.  How protective you felt of them.  

But then as they grow up and move on, you can't protect them any more.  You have to let them grow up and become their own person.  You have to let me be the human being that their potential allows them to be.   

Sometimes you even wish they could be that little again, especially when they are asserting their 'authority' and I know better than you attitude, citing "you wouldn't know how I feel".  Knowing all the time that you have been there, done that, and know exactly how they feel.  Wishing that you could take away their pain, but knowing that you can't.

You remember the times when they were happy, smiling at the fact that you were just talking to them.  Giving them attention.

Smiling just because everything in life brings them joy.  Everything in life is a new and wonderful experience.

You realise was a beautiful and wonderful blessing they are in your life and so you smile back and never want them to grow up.  You want them to stay just the way they are.

"Look Mum, I'm a bride"

You see the creativity that is in them, as they role play, to learn about life.  

When they do things that are so amazing and beautiful and you feel so proud of who they are.

You see their beauty, their soul, their innocence and you hope that they will always be that way.

I have lovely memories of this photo .....

When I asked what she was, she said to me "Look Mum, I'm a bride", and she thought she was so beautiful.

And just quietly ..... I did too.

Sometimes life changes and it doesn't work out the way you want it to.  You don't always have control over what your children do or what they become, or where they go with and in their lives.  You have to learn to live with that.  However, no one can ever take your memories away from you.  No one can ever change what you hold dear in your mind and in your heart.  Those memories are yours alone to keep and reflect on.  

  

FREEDOM WRITERS

I watched a fabulous movie today on DVD called FREEDOM WRITERS, starring Hilary Swank and Patrick Dempsey and directed by Richard LaGravenese. It is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I enjoyed it so much.

Touching and inspiring, yet at times confronting, Freedom Writers is the true story of an enthusiastic English teacher, Erin Gruwell and the challenges that she faces in her first teaching appointment at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School, in Long Beach, California. The story occurs between 1992 and 1995 and surrounds a group of students who come from a variety of multi-cultural backgrounds, that have formed gangs as a means of protecting 'their own'.

The real Erin Gruwell

Erin initially struggles to gain the respect of her students. They have little or no trust in white people. After all they say how can a white person know what they are going through.

She struggles to know what to do to turn her students around. She gives each student a diary and asks them to write in them .... anything they like ... good or bad .... poetry or stories.

If they want to let her read what they have written they can, but they don't have to and she sets up a place in her room where they can leave their diaries for her to read.

All the students leave their diaries for her to read and what she reads opens her eyes to their world.

With time and through her creativity, Erin Gruwell gradually gains the trust of her students and helps them to see that despite their different nationalities and cultural differences they are more alike than they know. She helps them to see that there is more to life than fighting against each other and killing each other in gangs. Along the way these students learn much about life and themselves and come to learn they can live together in peace and as friends.

Along the way they also learn that they can change and that they do have the ability to make something of their life.

This is embodied in her Toast for Change.

Eventually all their writing is put together to form a book call The Freedom Writers Diary. Below is the actual book that was published.

Freedom Writers, an excellent movie and one that I highly recommend and I give it 10 out of 10.

Oh that there were more Erin Gruwell's in the world.