As we make our way through life we tend to focus on the immediacy of the tasks before us. Developing a relationship; nurturing careers; raising a family etc.
We focus on these things, often to the exclusion of anything else.
At some point were able look at life through the rearview mirror with most of those things behind us: married; retired from the workforce; children hatched and out of the nest. It’s then that we have the luxury of time and the gift of perspective to weigh and measure our life’s worth.
This is one of the blessings of age, being able to synthesize our life’s experiences, to total, amalgamate and analyze those experiences and to reflect on their meaning.
And, it is in this totaling and summation of our lives experiences that we can see, illustrated before us, clear and unambiguous, the impact and meaning of our lives.
The greater impact and meaning has arisen out of our relationships, especially with our spouses and children. Being able to share your life with the person you love and growing old together is perhaps the greatest experience in life, while at the same time one of the saddest knowing that at some point in the not distant future death will shatter that union and one of you will be left with the memories of what you both once had.
Relationships with your children and grandchildren come close behind on the fulfillment and satisfaction index/scale. Putting time into developing a loving relationship with your children as they developed to maturity pays untold dividends as we age in the company of grown adults with whom we have a reciprocal relationship of respect, one grounded in love and affection.
Your children’s children are, as my mother used to say, “the bonus in life,” the cherry on top of the chocolate sundae, saved till the end, savored and appreciated
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