Sunday, December 10, 2006

Life Is A Party

I want to ride it all life long. (sing that to the Rascal Flats tune)

Our eldest was just a week old as we walked in the warm spring sunshine to see our part-time neighbor in the log cabin. We met our other neighbor along the way. He was something, wanting so badly to be a good ole boy but just not having a clue and always pissing someone off with his cultural ignorance. He had two little girls.

So he saw us with our little bundle, and they are so little at first, and he came over, and I’m sure he meant to be nice but what he said that I remember was, “Well, all your fun is over now.” We looked at him, confused, and said in that confident new parent way, “We think he’s pretty fun actually.” He said, “Well, you do at first, but then you can’t go out to dinner or the movies or do anything really.”

It wasn’t long until he and his family and his debt followed his job out of here.

And ever since then we’ve regularly laughed that it is “too bad our fun is over now.” You see, we actually like being around our kids. We didn’t decide to have kids so that someone else could raise them, or because of some genetic predisposition to reproduce ourselves. We decided to have kids because we really wanted to have kids, to get to know and fully appreciate these other beings who came to share this time on earth with us, to create a family, whole.

And frankly, holy.


Hauling the Tree In
Originally uploaded by
Contrary Goddess.


I’m really glad that we are together, and our children are here, with us, in our house & on our farm, today and all days. I’m really glad we picked out our Christmas tree and decorated it all together. I’m really glad to have dinner together, and breakfast. To carry wood together and do chores. To rely on each other, to celebrate each the other. Alone and together.

Ok, ok, and irritate each other too. Sometimes that is even the best part.

7 comments:

Ren Allen said...

This was really beautiful CG. Thanks for sharing. A truly connected family is a wonderful thing. It makes me sad when people are confused at how much I LIKE to be with my kids.:)

Holy for sure.....they've helped me learn so much about being a better human being.

CG said...

It makes me sad how much other people do not like to be with theirs.

laura said...

::::::::::wiping away the tears::::::::



and no, that is not sarcasm. this really touched me.

i love you and yours

CG said...

::::hug::::

you are the best friend

Dramaw said...

You are very lucky to have kids that you can tolerate for more than a day or so. My daughter is a joy but my son makes me gray!! He has done everything wrong you can imagine. Now that I have had to apply some tough love he won't even call me. I imagine that will change though. He will call hoping for a Christmas present which I have neatly wrapped under the tree. I often wonder what would have happened if the world hadn't raised him and I had. It makes me sad.

CG said...

That's the thing isn't it, how often families allow the world to raise their kids instead of the family, the parents. Kids are valued so little that the adults in society tend to think everything else is more important, shuffle them off to the side and then rationalize that that suffling is actually good for the kids.

Although let me be clear here, I am sometimes quite challenged by our kids (one especially and we know who she is -- the one like me, the one like my mother, oh my gawd). And I've come to the conclusion that that is why kids have two parents :::g:::

Glad to see you around Dramaw!

laura said...

i totally get that CG...the reason for 2 parents thing...sometimes you just don't click with one or the other and it's good to have another person to just take over.

but loving kids is both easy and hard. still, they are people...their very own personal selves. i remember the first time i realized my kids were these totally separate beings from me. that just like any other person in the world...i just may not like them or they me. i had assumed long ago that because i gave birth to my kids that i would certainly love them, and mostly likely like them. which i do, and i do. but there is no guarantee that we will always get along or like each other.

oh, i think gibran said it best:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

etc. etc. (yes, i had to look that up!)

i love "the prophet"

anyway...just on here doing stuff to keep from doing other stuff...lol