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My Father's Words

Our two youngest grandchildren visited yesterday…Aden is 18 and Ava turns 16 in September…we opened a time capsule made 12 years ago and took time to remember.

I sat there for a moment thinking about time and how fast her river flows…as we tried to remember what we were doing a decade plus two years ago.

And I thought about my dad and words I often heard spoken from his tongue…
words I swore growing up I’d never say…four words…when I was young.

Making these kind of promises, I imagine, is something we all do when we’re young, innocent and carefree, until, one day, perhaps with our children or grandchildren we listen to ourself and think…Oh no!  It’s happened to me.

We try not to show how much our pride and our ego have been bruised…as we find ourself using words and phrases our father…and grandfather…used.

When I was young, we tell our children, people were kinder…the world was not as hard…neighbors gathered and had fun together…there wasn’t a fence in every backyard.  

When I was young we drove old cars…we didn’t have all these outrageous prices…
When I was young we played outside…we had no hand-held devices.

When I was young we respected our elders…and our hair was neatly combed…
When I was young if we got in trouble in school…we got in trouble at home.

Could it be as we climb the ladder of life…with changes at ever rung…
we’re just trying to hold on to a piece of our past…to a time when we were young?

Could it be we want our children and grandchildren to know they are lucky…they are blessed…for all the world has set before them…for all that they possess?

Perhaps as I’m echoing words my grandfather and father once, long ago, said to me…I’m continuing a custom…a tradition…handed down from family to family.

That’s probably why I sat there smiling…
thinking how far back life’s pendulum has swung…
listening as my grandchildren remembered…
and wondering if they’ll use the same words my father used 
to tell their children…about a time…when they were young.

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