In spite of mistakes

All our lives, of course, our children remain our children to us in our hearts. Even so, their lives are not our lives. We shall cherish their successes. We shall grieve over their failures.

We shall be glad in their joys and unhappy in the face of their problems and sorrows. And sometimes we shall find ourselves blaming ourselves for whatever ills befall them. "If only I hadn't made such mistakes!"

This too is natural. But to dwell on it and stop there is unproductive.

We've all made mistakes. They're done. We cannot undo them. Blaming ourselves for them is futile. We do better as we acknowledge that making mistakes has been as much a part of living as life itself.

We, as well as our children, have had times of fear and uncertainty; of hate and of anger. We still shall have them. They are bound to come as long as we live.

Where are we now?

What of the future?

Isn't there some word we can carry with us to hold close and live by as time moves on?

There is. This is it:

We have come through the long years, often without knowing that feelings are as important as we now know they are.

This new awareness can help us bring greater richness to live by than anything else. It can help us help others. It can enable us to reach out beyond ourselves and beyond our own families into new kinds of giving.

We have learned to acknowledge the importance of our schildren's feelings and of our own. We have gained in ACCEPTANCE and UNDERSTANDING of feelings within our own family circle.

Outside our family circle there are countless people hungry for acceptance, understanding and love.

These are valuable gifts to be given. They are also great and universal tools. With them we can build stronger bridges across the spaces that separate man from man.

We no longer need to struggle and push to attain perfection or to have our children and our children's children attain it.

We can stand firm and proud and unashamed in the frailty and strength of admitting: Yes, I am human like all the earth's people. Yet I am capable of a great and good and growing capacity to accept, to love and to understand.