So, I had the great pleasure today to attend Pride Alive and support the idea of encouraging love of all forms. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and I'll leave you to your own without my influence, because as I've stated in the past, this is not a political blog. However, I did find myself considering how easy it seemed to support love of all sorts. I know I'm one of the lucky ones, knowing how to love freely and be loved. I know I spend a lot of time making sure my boys know how to love and be loved as well. But how did we get like that? How did we learn to love?
I came to the conclusion that learning to love comes in different ways for different people. My family is chock full of love, so much so that we run out of people to love and start adopting other non-blood relatives into our family. My Gma Rae was known for this... I swear to you that she 6 biological children but was the mother of at least 20 others. When she passed earlier this year, I was blessed to know that her time was coming, and that I had that chance to say "thank you" and "good bye" as many do not. And when I sat down to thank her for her contributions to my life and to the world, the thing I realized most is that she taught me (and my mother and all my family) how to love, very much unconditionally. Today would've been her birthday. She probably would've turned about 50 years old or so plus experience:) She was cherished and she is greatly missed, but her memory and her lessons lived on in my heart today, as well as in my children's hearts.
My beautiful Gma Rae
My children have been doubly blessed, for they too are celebrating the birthday of a very loving Grandmother. (She is a little younger than my grandma was though, because I believe she's only 30 years old with a little experience this year, but she's still full of knowledge despite the youth:) ) I was fortunate enough to marry into a family that shared my ideals of strong families and love. Although I refer to my mother-in-law as "Patti", her real name, for the record, is Grandma Goo. I believe this moniker came from my oldest nephew, Matthew, but it has carried on to each of her 5 grandchildren. And just as my grandma taught me that love is being kind and friendly and appreciating one another, Grandma Goo teaches her grandchildren that same lesson. And just like all amazing grandmothers, they taught me (us) that the best way to spread love is by giving out great big hugs. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a moment when a grandma isn't just loving on her babies...
Our Incredible Grandma Goo
So, to our grandmas, and to all those amazing grandmother's out there, I say "Thank you!" and "I love you".
To Gma Rae and Grandma Goo,
Happy Birthday!
