My darling Grandchildren,
If you are reading this, I have already left my earthly form.
I will leave this letter in a collection of your children's art, a bin full of stuff that you have probably forgotten ever making, but that I treasured until my final breath. I want you to know how very much I love you even now that I am not here to hold you, to teach you what I learned in my short but eventful time on earth, and to share my deep love for you and for all the creatures, plants, stones, magma, waters, and specks of dust on this astonishing planet. Now it's your turn to shape the future, both your futures and the future of the entire world.
Where to start? A freewrite poem is always a good place to start, so:
Give thanks to the ramblings of an old woman
who remembers in her turn to give thanks even to a dandelion
plucked from its berth
in the soils of both imagination
and truth
Here is something your Uncle Niko said to me before he died. He was a being of love and light despite a great deal of suffering. He was my guide, my rock, and my inspiration. I still wonder what he meant by the words below, but whenever I am tasked with a difficult situation, I remember what he said, and I let Niko guide me even still:
Set clear ethical boundaries
When times are tough, and you will have tough times, look for opportunities. Strife uncovers paths you could not see before your struggles began. Do not follow ANY guidance that does not feel right to you, especially if your ethical boundaries have to be crossed.
Here are a few things I would like for you to ponder.
You are beings of love.
You are products of everything that ever happened before this moment. You are descendants of the whole human race.
Every action, no matter how small, ripples throughout the universe and affects all.
No one knows what is best for you except yourself. No one.
Sometimes it takes time for a correct action to become clear. If you have any doubts about doing something, consider not doing it.
Memory is time travel. Travel freely!
You are powerful beyond measure.
Freedom Matters.
Live in love.
I love you.
This is my entry to hive-106316, The Silverbloggers community's blog of the month challenge, for which we were to write a letter to our grandchildren.
I found this to be very difficult! I could not stop crying!!!
footer by our dear SilverFish, @mondoshawan
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What a very enriching letter this is! Your grandchildren will be so fortunate to read it :)
Making good choices and never compromising what you believe in, undoubtedly one of the best advices one can receive.
!LADY
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"Make good choices" was something I always said to my kids when I left them somewhere that they would be on their own. Although they and their friends found the statement funny, I was dead serious.
I believe they understand 😊
They mostly made good choices, so I think you are right.
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There is nothing more beautiful than letters that spread emotions.
It was really hard to write this because I got so emotional.
Love, Light & Freemindness... 🤗
Oh how I love this, on so many levels.
Niko! I remember when you first mentioned him saying this:
But I love your poem, Stacey! "Give thanks to the ramblings of an old woman" - old in years, maybe, and in wisdom, but young at heart and so very much ALIVE and here with us, and for that I am so grateful. Every day, I list the good things still in this world of war and loss. Stacey is still here. MarianneWest and MyJob are still here. We lost our beloved Bruno, but we still have much to celebrate.
Thanks for this Stacey!
Set boundaries - that is a message I'm seeing as my middle child, the mother of our grandchildren, has declared me "insanely toxic" (for reasons that even my husband says sound fabricated and fictional) and we have been "removed" from her life. I'll miss the kids. The daughter, I just pity.... "the daughter" .... flesh of my flesh, breastfed on demand for two years, nurtured with love, but Middle Child ....
Oops, my quote block went fubar. Should I edit or just leave it.
Also, in sharing via Twitter, your image didn't come through. -_-
Yeah my images are unreliable. I think it's my computer. Ifarmgirl tweeted it, and the image seems to have worked. But thanks for tweeting twittering me! I never go to twitter anymore. I have enough online to do.
Oddly, today, the image does come through at Twitter. Oh the gremlins and glitches of tech and social media platforms.
So frustrating! I tend to ignore the glitches because many of them do just work themselves out without my tearing my hair out for an hour trying to understand what is wrong.
the Facebook share worked (image comes through)
What?! You've been removed?! What is that?! On top of all else that has been going on? You are not the toxic entity in this fantasy of your son in law's and your daughter's. I am so sorry!!! That's ridiculous, I am very angry at them. What do you mean even Tim says their reasons are fictional?
Niko was quite wonky by this time, but insistent on our setting ethical boundaries, even asking me the next day "Did you do it?" When I asked "Do what?" he said "Set ethical boundaries." I believe he wanted to be sure the end of his life was the way he wanted it to be, without medical intervention, and at home. He died in my arms in his own bed, with no medical interference.
The children will get to know your sisters, all of them. They carry all of you with them, whether they, or you, know it or not.
You know I love you, right?
#Removed. Excised, like a tumor. Carol has been cut out of her daughter's life.
I'm mad at her too. Niko's words on #boundaries carried a special weight when you posted this. Very timely, very relevant. #GottaLoveNiko, and always #loveyouStacey!
This 29-yr-old needs "time off" from her mother. The things she accuses me (and her sister) of are so bizarre, I figure it's her addictions talking (weed every day for a decade, the nicotine/vaping in the past year, then her anti-anxiety meds, her six trips to ER in one summer for the crippling anxiety). Yes, I'm getting personal here. Who's gonna read this? My daughter? Her husband?
Yes, I feel the love and support from you, and you know I love you, Stacey!!
That one word, even. "Even Tim." Funny how a single word can slip in and train-wreck a statement. Tim who lives with me and knows me better than anyone - Tim says our daughter and her husband manufacture grievances against me, and he sees no basis in reality for their claims of me being 'insanely toxic,' etc, and it would all be laughable in a 30-minute sitcom where all the misunderstandings and delusions are exposed at the end of the show. But no. It festers. I have been "removed" from their lives, and oops, that means they lose Tim too. And our other daughter and son.
Their motherless cousins have said how lucky she is to still have her mother.
I've contemplated faking my own death and living under an alias. So many of my 5-minute freewrites have circled the wagons around that idea but only occasionally do I write of some housewife taking off in an old van and leaving it all behind. I don't really want to leave everything and everyone behind. I just want people to tolerate my eccentricities and love me in spite of my failings.
LOL, me carrying my sisters with me - well, that could explain a lot! They were noisy and attention-seeking and rambunctious. And I loved them no less for it. :)
I grew up around "crazy" people (most of us do). We learned to accept one another and BE THERE for each other no matter what. We didn't remove the tumors (the "toxic" spinster aunt, e.g.) -
Eh. Time to go write a book review.
Thank you Stacey!!!!
I forgot she was having those anxiety problems. She's depleted, and her evil husband is taking advantage of her condition by turning her against the last people outside the family that she had quality contact with, her family of origin. It's awful. I hope she snaps out of it!!! Who is he going to go after next? Because he has to be destroying something or someone, he's an obsessive destroyer. What on earth does she see in him?
Yes, she is depleted. She tells herself she has the best husband in the world. She posts pictures of him, shirtless, saying "All mine," and sorry if his hotness melts the computer screen. She has to believe the lies she's telling the world (and herself) because the alternative is horrifying and unfathomably, profoundly painful. I dread the day she wakes up. She may never wake up. It would destroy her.
Oh I love these!
I feel that time travel bit keenly now. When I go back in my mind, I feel I can infuse the moment with my whole being enough to actually be both there and here. This brings the deceased into the now too. All is imaginary, and imagination is all. So why not? If I feel like I am back there, then I am back there. Maybe I can make some better choices, especially of words, and bring him back to life in a way.
Ohhh, I love this. All is imaginary, and imagination is all. So why not?
Can we imagine away the misunderstandings, the expectations others had for us and the ways we "failed" them, the things we did, the things we did not...
Yes!!! We can change the past, more time travel. I've been pondering this quite a bit. I believe it's possible. The only reason we don't do it is because we've been told it's not possible.
I loved that line when it popped out too. I want a t-shirt with it on it.
Old ladies and dandelions go well together
haha you've caught me out
That is so lovely! Everything about it from the poem to the words of wisdom, eloquent and simple, yet so very profound. Beautiful <3
What a beautiful letter @owasco!
Priceless advice that I hope your grandchildren find when that day comes.
Your uncle sounds like an amazing man, ethics is a rare attribute in today's world where power and wealth takes precedence over ethics.
Thank you for sharing your advice in this month's #bom 💖
Beautiful, short and sweet. I loved you poem too.
Glad you enjoyed it!