Monday March 8,2021

Good morning everyone, I trust that everyone had a nice weekend. Today is Monday March 8, 2021. The weather will start out cold today but will warm up, we are on our way to better days ahead. Yesterday I decided to make chicken soup, you know I like soup for lunch everyday. This is not something I always did, I really didn’t like it that much especially chicken soup. But that like many other things about me have changed. While making the soup, I remembered Marylou’s uncle always told the story of her grandmother, how she woul make soup from a chicken and then take it and roast it in the oven, with 8 children she had to stretch the meals. So I did it, it was delicious not dry at all ,actually very moist and tasty so again I learned from the past , thanks to the original Mary Louise.
My mind this week has been on children and childhood. I think because so many former students reached out this week I feel humbled by their words. However, children to me our greatest gift from god and like any other precious gift it is to be taken care of to the utmost. It is not easy being a parent, children require a lot. They don’t truly understand what life is about yet, all they know is what they want, that has been that way since the beginning of time. They don’t understand that to get what you want you must work for it and that is a parents role, we try not to disappoint them but that is also how they learn. I have always considered myself lucky to have had the parents I did. When I think back I really did have a good childhood that is not to say I didn’t feel disappointed many times and didn’t understand but age changes that you begin to see reality. I think sometimes I am cursed with an amazing memory, I very rarely forget something and the smallest of thing can evoke a memory that most people have long forgotten. It is not that I hold on to things it is that these memories become part of my personal history that’s where the name Reflections of a life, family blog came from. I now go to physical therapy for my shoulder and as you know there are no magazines or any reading material anymore in an office because of COVID. But in the office there is a book on a shelf titled West Point, the military academy. When I saw the book I thought back to being an 8 year old. At that time I was a Boy Scout and they were having a father son trip to visit and tour West Point on a Saturday. Of course I was excited to go , all boys of my generation loved playing army. Now I went home and talked non stop about this trip at dinner and I told my father how much fun we would have on the bus , at lunch. He turned to me and said Joseph you know I cannot go with you it is a Saturday, I could never miss a Saturday at work. You will have to go alone and have fun. I still remember the disappointment lI felt, the day came and I went alone, in the gift shop my anger subsided a little and I bought him a coffee cup because I knew he would be there if he could. I held on to that cup all day, getting on the bus I dropped it, it broke in about a thousand pieces now I felt really angry about the whole thing. I flung it in the garbage and when I got home I never mentioned that trip. Til this day I don’t think I ever discussed it with my parents. But the older I got I came to the realization you do not always get what you want, life is a series of happiness and disappointments and we must learn how to deal with it. That was our generation somewhere along the way these ideals were forgotten children today have a hard time coping and I believe that stems from us, maybe we were too indulgent and gave in too much. That’s why children today often seek professional help but maybe that is a good thing and it would have helped many my age. To sum it all up childhood is not easy, that’s why children need the best people in their lives , people who teach and nurture and bring out the best in them. To quote Maya Angelou, we never forget how a person made us feel.
So today enjoy yourself , and if you can remember the joys and carefree feeling of being a child agin and try to recature some of those feelings, eat a lollipop or something like that. Til Tomorrow.