Understanding

I have a fairly large family; 4 grown children, 10 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild. My mother is still alive, thank God, and so are my father, sister, brother, and their children and two grandchildren (brother and sister's). That's a lot of people especially if you add the in-laws which I do, even if they don't want me to. We all used to be very close except for my father. Holidays have been spent at my house for the past 20 some odd years and it was always full and fun, not counting the work because when you do it for the people you love it isn't so hard but it is still work. Anyway as med./large families go sooner or later everyone goes their own way. I truly miss the closeness, the love that was there, even the occasional misunderstandings were dealable. My mother is getting on in age and her health isn't all that good, so it is becoming a challenge to figure out how/when/where to get together.

When my kids were young they had their differences and even if it became a fight, they would still deal with it and get it over with. But as they have grown it seems that there are others involved enough that the problem never gets straightened out. I don't want to be part of the situation...I just want peace. I love them all and even though they are different I love them all just as much. They are different so there are things about each that I may not care much for, but it doesn't stop me from loving them.

There are not many people in my life that would voice the fact that I do try to understand any situation I find myself involved with. They only see the surface not what my heart and soul feel and believe. So every once in a while I write something that I hope will help them see the me that isn't so easily noted. This is one of those poems:

Understanding

Lift your spirit unto the mountains
Where it may find freedom and you can see
The past and future much less clouded
By all the present days mendacities

Remove the blinders that narrow your sight
And see the world in all its’ splendor
See it all the good along with the bad
And accept its strength through your surrender

Fill your hearing with the mixed melodies
Of man and nature when they harmonize
Blending the heart pulsing strength of the drum
With the haunting beauty of the eagle's cry

Unbind your soul give it freedom to soar
Much as the birds of prey, always searching
For the comfort found within compassion
And the nourishment gained by understanding

Do not be afraid to open your heart
And let it fill with love, passion and faith
For all that life is from beginning to end
Is a combination of the choices we make

Susan Palmer-Davis

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