My very favorite time of life, so far, was my early childhood.
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| Me. 1955. |
My world was new and I was not yet damaged by loss. I could still love with reckless abandon, and my biggest worry was that I might miss the neighborhood ice cream truck that night.
Then the life lessons started.
My great-aunts and great-uncles, whom I loved with all my heart, died...one by one. I had to watch them wither away. By the time I was ten I had attended at least six funerals of people I loved dearly, including my own Daddy's funeral, and I had watched many beloved pets die and be buried.
When Daddy died we lost everything to medical bills and funeral expenses, as Daddy had no insurance. The big house, the business, the trappings of middle-class America, all gone. Mama had to go to work for $.90 an hour to support herself and her two remaining children still at home, my younger sister and me.
My first life lesson was: Loss
(NOTE: I HATE LOSS.)
My school years were spent watching Mama work. She would go to work, come home, do house work and yard work and gardening, go to bed, and get up the next day and do it all again. Year after year.
Mama would get the 4th of July week as a "vacation" every year, and she would spend that time cleaning out the closets, washing the curtains, and washing all our old metal blinds in the bathtub.
We wore clothes Mama made for us, when she could afford to buy cloth, and hand-me-down clothes, when we could get them. Mama would buy us one pair of shoes a year.
We ate the food we grew in the garden until it ran out, and then it was mostly pinto beans and mashed potatoes with chicken on Sunday, if we were lucky. Mama always made homemade biscuits or cornbread though, so we never went hungry.
There was no air conditioning in the house and no heat in the bedrooms.
It was not an easy life.
My second life lesson was: Struggle
(NOTE: I HATE STRUGGLE.)
When I was 22, I had been married for several years. We had a lovely home and three precious sons, ages 4, nearly 2, and newborn. Those were happy years.
My third life lesson was: Love
(NOTE: I LOVE LOVE!)
When my sons started school, I applied for and won enough academic scholarships to go to college. I graduated four years later at the top of my class.
My fourth life lesson was: Achievement
(NOTE: I LOVE ACHIEVEMENT!)
My teaching years were over-shadowed by my failing marriage. The marriage lasted 22 years. The first 10 years were very happy. I am thankful for that, but the marriage ended nightmarishly.
My fifth life lesson was: Betrayal
(NOTE: I HATE BETRAYAL.)
In 1995 I escaped to Charleston with no job and only enough money to pay one month's rent. I am still here.
My sixth life lesson was: Survival
(NOTE: Survival is okay.)
As I contemplate retirement, I wonder what life lessons it will bring?
My hope is that my seventh life lesson will be: Prosperity!
(NOTE: I believe I would LOVE Prosperity!)
Life surprises me all the time. I never know what will happen next, but I do know that all these life lessons were necessary. I had to experience them in order to grow to be the person I am today.
It is my belief that there are no coincidences in this life. All things happen as they should.
What life lessons have you learned so far? What life lessons do you expect to learn?
I really hope I finish learning patience soon. I hate patience. It takes too long to learn!!! 😉 -sigh-
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