Daily Post: Priceless

When I was younger after I left home, I would visit my parents.  What I did not realize at the time, that I took for granted was a precious gift given to me by my mom and dad.  When we would visit my parents…they always made the time to “be present in that moment, in our visit.”  I expected them to be available for me when I needed them, indefinitely when it was convenient for me!  

That was twenty five or thirty years ago…today with all the technology device distractions, it is so easy, to fall into a pattern of disconnecting from life and family to engage in the technology instead of the people with us, right in front of us. I see parents with strollers or young toddlers walking with their young children talking on their cell whether outside or in the grocery store, while their young children wait for their attention. Cell phones and other devices have become the way we communicate. Text messaging has replaced talking face to face, social media is how we connect with extended family and friends.

My parents passed away fifteen and twenty years ago, they left us a valuable gift that we cannot see nor touch or take out of a box…their time, their presence, memories…Priceless! Those many years ago, the torch was passed to us, what will we do? Will we be present? Will we make the time?

This gift given to us has made me aware now as a parent of the true value of the gesture my parents gave us! We honor their memory by giving our adult children the same gift…our time, our presence, memories. When they stop by or we make plans to get together, we are “present” with our daughters. We are discovering the best memories we make are spur of the moment, someone usually needs to talk or needs some advice. Through our family connecting to be there for one another, to spend time together, we have also learned that part of connecting is helping one another. Last year our eldest daughter moved into her first place, and our family re-painted her home, her dad did a number of things from laundry room update to electrical modernization to help her out.  This year, we did a garden that we all had a hand in building or planting.  We have made Homemade Tomatoe Sauce together this summer! Now we are re-doing our floors, and our daughters have helped us with the logistics of furniture moving, painting rooms. Our youngest daughter is moving soon to her place and we plan on helping her with some of her home’s needs.  Next spring we are taking a family vacation together.

                                             
Spending time together making memories can be a vacation, a drive in the country, a lazy afternoon watching movies, a walk in the park or helping one another.

Make the time, be present, connect, it costs nothing, one kind gesture can change a person’s day because those are the things one cannot see or touch yet are Priceless!