"Do Over"

A few weeks ago, the movie "City Slickers" was on our TV. I have seen it many times, so didn't sit down to take it in again. As usual, I had other things to do. I did however, as I passed through the living room, pick up a few gleanings.

Don't we all have things in our lives which we wish we could do over? Mistakes we made? We think that if we only would have done things differently, everything would have turned out better. I feel that way about a lot of the mistakes I have made. How would my life be different had I not dropped out of college? Would my life be better if I hadn't married my first husband? Why did I move to Colorado? Why did I move back to Wisconsin?

All those episodes though pale in comparison when I think of how I raised my kids. Oh, I wasn't a horrible abusive parent. But I yelled at them a lot more than I should have. And I was gone more than I should have been. If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent more time with Nick and Val, been more patient with them, taken them more places, praised them more and criticized them less. Somehow, no doubt through the grace of God, Nick and Val turned out pretty good. Each day I am more and more proud of them. I look at our lives and think that I have more to thank them for than they have to thank me for.

In this blog, I have been thanking various people who have helped me create my memoir of my trip to Africa. That trip would have never happened without Nick and Val, and this blog would have never happened without them, thus the book certainly wouldn't have been written without them.


And my "best day"? Every day. Because at least once every day  I think of my son and daughter and I find my smile.