Away

This last weekend we had to leave our nice cozy and warm home and venture out of town to a most unfortunate family gathering. Not the happiest of gatherings, but also not the saddest either. Amie's Great Grandfather, Brads Grandfather on his Dads side passed away last Friday. Amie only met him a few times as did I. None of us were terribly close to him, and neither was Brad. In fact the sad thing is that only two people were greatly impacted by his passing, that is two of his eight children. You see sadly enough Amie's great grandfather wasn't the happiest or nicest of men. In fact he was a bit scary at times (he scolded me at my wedding). Out of respect for our family we took the long trip to be with his family for the weekend. It made me sad to think how one mans grumpiness or anger can effect generations to come. How differently might his children have turned out if he was kinder or more loving? Maybe his father wasn't a loving man, so he wasn't a loving man, so on so forth. But sometimes that trend can be broken as in Brads case and his three brothers. Amie loved the trip she got to spend tons of time with her uncles Eric and Kyle! My heart always sings when I see the look in her uncles eyes as they look at her, hold her, give her kisses and hugs and play with her. As I watched her interact with them it made me smile. It also made me think of how many children grow up (especially girls) with out positive male role models in their life?? I am so grateful that Amie can grow up having good positive experiences with older men. It makes me feel relief as a parent that maybe now she wont have to go "looking" for it when she grows up. It makes me sad to think that because somebody had a tough childhood that they have to stay stuck, that they cant break free of that and become who they want to be. There are many people who break free of that and that makes me happy, it makes me happy to see that in our own family. Life is how you make it. Bad things happen to good people, but its how we act on those bad things that shape who we are in days and years to come. Everyday we impact people, I want to live my life impacting people for the better not the worst. Its your decision, you choose!