Unconditional Love drags unwilling feet to all sorts of places that build up the mind, body and soul. Unconditional Love sometimes has to put up with some whine, deal with a bit of balking, kind of like making a child eat their peas or green beens. They might pull a 5 sensory boycott: Don’t like the taste, Don’t see the need, Don’t feel the positive effects, Don’t hear the message, Can smell a learning moment a mile away. But it is good for them, regardless. It stretches them beyond what they are.
While visiting The Great Smokey Mountains, we toured Cades Cove – the day after a torrential storm. My joyful son commented, “Sure it was fun. . . for the first 30 minutes.” Yes, they moaned every time we stopped to learn a little history, discover a little beauty. Yes, they cheered when the camera batteries died. At the very end, though (about 4 hours later), you should have seen them all trying to make that camera work – but to no avail. We have no proof we saw 2 brown bears!
It is the kind of day they will talk about how “Mom” forced them to be dragged through a great wilderness, stopped too often to capture something beautiful. They will sigh, roll their eyes and make the funny jokes boys make. Probably until one day when they start bragging about it to their kids.
Unconditional Love is willing to get uncomfortable because we know things they don’t know, like the importance of stopping to take a moment to enjoy a beautiful sight, despite peer pressure to not. Or that by stopping to look at a grave site, you learn why those immunizations you have to take are pretty important. Or seeing with your own eyes that a family of 8 lived in 2 rooms without a bathroom, and maybe realizing how blessed they really are. Or seeing streams of water all frothy and rushing as a result of the previous days storm. That in order to make a moment outstanding, you have to seize that moment instead of letting it pass by outside your window.
Your posts are always so beautifully written and never fail to make me stop and think about what truly matters in life.
What a beautiful post! You have totally captured the essence of parenting – and I can just tell that you have buckets of patience to spare.
LOL – I have had people comment how peaceful must be my house. I do not have buckets of patience to spare. There are days when multi-tasking looks like running a 3-legged race. I think it is just I do not give up. I always hope. And I try to find the good in life, no matter how ugly it gets. But thank you for seeing me better than I am:)
Stopping by from SITS. What a wonderful post! Thanks for sharing.
What fun! Maybe it is like having a baby… years down the road you forget about all the pain the pregnancy and labor were and just remember the sweet moments.
I love that phrase “unconditional love is willing to get uncomfortable because we know things they don’t know”
What a great post, so beautifully articulated!!
joy & blessings to you and yours,
Alida
You cant buy memories like that.
I love this, but especially when you wrote “Unconditional Love is willing to get uncomfortable…” so true. Thanks for sharing!
Can I come live at your house? I LOVED this post and want to go on walks and learn stuff, too! Please? Pleeeease? Pretty please? On a more serious (ho) note – I like this Unconditional Series – very, very powerful stuff you’re teaching us here.
Absolutely beautiful post. Your words and pictures were wonderful!! Thanks for sharing them.
Thanks for your comment on my blog, too. It meant a lot to me. : )
~ Wendy
http://Crickleberrycottage.blogspot.com/
Unconditional Love is willing to get uncomfortable… LOVE THIS!!!
Very good point…how else will they grow, or will we grow alongside them? 🙂