Tag Archives: love

It’s Great To Reach For The Stars But You Might Only Get As Far As The Moon . . . That’s OK

Dance Me to the End of Love I

Have you ever experienced that love donates like an exploding star? A love that grew slowly and didn’t necessarily start out as brightly as a supernova but eventually delivered more energy over the long run? We all fall in love for a reason. Some say it’s because there is something so unique and rare in the person they love that no matter what their flaws, or shortcomings, they return again and again in their minds and thoughts to all the good and wonderful ineffable qualities which, for them anyway, is the essence of why they fell in love with them in the first place.

Perfection is a wonderful goal.

Always settling for second-best can lead to a lifetime of disappointment but since nobody is perfect, you could spend a lifetime searching for Mr. or Mrs. Right. So don’t you think that it makes sense to be with someone who you enjoy flaws and all and who enjoys your flaws and all?

It’s true they will not be perfect or even come close to the one you pictured as your “soul mate,” but there will definitely be some chemical reaction going on between you and your love for each other as it grows and bubbles and boils strongly. Perhaps! Would that chemical reaction be stronger with someone else? Maybe? But don’t be too quick to abandon a relationship because your partner doesn’t fit your description of the “soul mate” you were expecting to show up.

The French call that feeling of instantaneous love le coup de foundre, the lightning bolt. Luckily, the odds of being hit by a real lightning bolt are small. Maybe, the odds of being hit by le coup de foundre are also small, but at least it’s not the only way to find true love.

We live in a world of instant gratification there is no denying that because of the world of instant gratification many end up feeling less satisfied and blinded to a love that slowly builds up. That’s because their love bucket it so low. When someone’s love bucket is low they often end up being less satisfied because a relationship takes some work on the parts of both people. That means that both people have to come together in agreement and actually work at having or maintaining a relationship.

Think of it this way fast food doesn’t compare to a meal that takes hours to prepare. Ready-to-wear clothes never fit as well as those that are hand tailored. So just because a relationship takes some work on the parts of both people to come together it doesn’t mean that is filled with any less passion than one that sparked at a first glance. In the long run , it may actually provide a lot more heat than a relationship that starts off quickly but peters out just as fast as it began.

 

 

 

Love Shouldn’t Be Blue

Posted in Love, relationships by

Head GamesWhat’s the color of your love? Is it flaming hot red or is sad blue?  Even flaming hot red Love “Wilts” without smiles, it drops under the weight of tears. It grows pale when it’s kept indoors. Storms of anger can melt away as quickly as they boil up. Feelings of sadness or anguish can be longer lasting. And injured heart can do as much damage to emotions as ethereal as love, as an outraged spleen can do to all your emotions.

If you’re drowning under waves of blue, you must learn how to swim for shore.Depression puts your whole life in shadows and prevents you from letting your love shine through to the people you want the most to see it. It’s okay to feel sad once in a while. It’s part of the human condition. The death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, the onset of a physical illness, even the loss of a valued object can make you cry and feel miserable for a time.

But eventually you do get over these blue moments. When nothing sets off your sadness and instead it’s a constant shadow, then it gets another name :depression. If you can’t shake off the blues by yourself, seek professional help. Remember, it’s not just your life that is miserable, your constant flow of river of tears could also be drowning you relationship. And if your partner is the one who’s always down, don’t just allow yourselves to drift apart because of it. If he or she can’t get help, then do whatever it takes to make certain they get the help they need.Do it for them, because you love them, but also do it for the two of you.

Tip: While anger boils up quickly, makes itself noticed, and then evaporates, depression sneaks in on little feet and makes itself comfort and won’t leave. Because of its quiet nature, it’s easy to overlook. If you or your loved one, are acting differently, especially if you’re sleeping a lot more than usual, then don’t hesitate to go to a doctor. It’s better to call in a false alarm than to let depression do even more damage because it’s ignored. 

There Will Be No Lifetime Exactly Like This One

Posted in Life, Love, Marriage, Parenting, relationships, Romace, Spiritual by

Which WayThere will be no love, no sweetheart, exactly like this one the man who pronounces your name in just such a way, with his beautiful voice, the man who brings flowers, whose words move your heart so tremblingly softly, whose arms holds you this way and they way, embracing, consoling, protecting: the woman whose fragrance enchants you, whose head on your chest when you sleep is the sweet weight of bliss, whose kisses are blessings, whose laughter is sunlight, whose smile is pure grace.

There will be no lifetime exactly like this one, no other, not ever again, not this birth, not this particular story, this mother and father, these houses and walls, these strangers and friends . Oh! And how you are moved by it all, with such beauty, touching each other, dancing, stepping, curtsying, bowing across all the stages, filling the rooms of your lives with this joy,  this sweet love. There will be no other way to live this life, only the way you have chosen to live it and with whom moment to moment. This moment , this day, this relationship, this life, are all unique, exquisite, unrepeatable. Like every  moment as if you, indelibly, knew this.

Celebrate Your Specialness

Posted in Adversity, Divorce, Life, Love, Marriage, Psychology, relationships by

PrettyYou complete me. Many people believe that when  Mr. Right or Mrs. Right comes along then they will be a complete human being. All too many of us consider love to be the miracle by which, we  will become complete human beings. This is the fixer-upper notion of love, the idea that we’re not all right as we are but we could  be  if we could  just find that one person to be loved by,  then that would prove we’re OK.  Love begets love.

If you don’t think well of your self, enjoying and valuing the person that you are, and have an understanding that self-knowledge is a lifelong personnel enterprise. It means that you appreciated yourself at least as much as you value your honey, that you know he or she is as blessed in love as you believe you are. It means you measure your strengths and weaknesses neither with the abuse of self-depreciation nor the insanity of egomania, but with genuineness, with accuracy. Loving  yourself is recognizing your gifts and talents and putting them to good use, acknowledging your flaws and forgiving yourself for them. Loving yourself is reaching for more, for the best in you.

So often people put up with shabby treatment in love because they don’t believe they deserve better. But self-love is always the model for the love you may reasonably expect, the true measure of the love you will give and get. Your heart can only hold as much love as you believe it can. So treat yourself better, believe you deserve to be treated well, and you will get treated ever more wonderfully in love. Love yourself. If you have not been treated kindly throughout your life or are trying to overcome a trauma from the past do yourself a favor and seek professional help and that should put you on a journey to loving yourself. You can exchange those ashes for beauty. Remember God is love.

Candlelight Nurtures Romance

Posted in Brides and Grooms, Love, Marriage, Psychology, relationships, Romace by

 Romance By CandlelightTwo hearts beat stronger as they gaze into the soft luminescence flames of candles.  The soft luminescence encourages loving gazes, whispered words, delicate touches, and sensual strings. Candles not only provide light, but also shadows that move along the walls and trigger your imagination. When bathed in candlelight, you and your sweetheart can relax and express yourselves in a way words cannot duplicate.

 When cave men and women walked the Earth, the dark was something to be feared. They tamed fire and the night  pushed them outside their caves. Huddling around the fire, they found safety, warmth and pleasure. Today we have little contact with fire. Our homes light up and our food can be cooked without any flames at all. Yet our ancient love of fire remains.  Instinctively we are drawn to a flame, not only for its wavering beauty but because when our sweetheart are basking in the firelight’s soft, warm glow emits a special effect. That’s why two hearts outlined by the radiance of a flame beat just a little faster.

Fireplaces are great place for reconnecting to the crackle and pop of a raging blaze. But a flame can also be cradled in a much smaller frame: a candle. Candles work best in groupings, which can be arranged to provide the utmost in atmosphere. They can be gathered together or spread around the room. It’s not really important how you arrange them, but the process itself  will put you a romantic mood. When you’re done, you and your sweetheart can settle into your private cave constructed of darkness and light.

Romace Can Be Imperfectly Perfect

HelloRomance speaks volumes in the form of focusing your total attention on your sweetheart, for a few minutes or hours, even when there’s something else you’d rather be doing.

For love to grow, the two of you need to communicate. The sounds, smells, sights, and touches that are the main ingredients of your love. They must somehow be pressed back and forth between the two of you and romance is the medium for this transferal.

Love that is accompanied by the words “I’m sorry” will never be rejected as long as they know you mean it. Love in the form of focusing your total attention on her for a few minutes or a few hours, even when there’s something else you’d rather be doing, will speak volumes.

Romance needs to be nestled in your cocoon of romance. Sometimes it’s easy to become confused about romance and think it can be bought. While money does help to create atmosphere, romance it’s self doesn’t have a price tag attached to it, nor is it required to be wrapped in a box from Tiffany’s.

It just needs to be a significant part of you: a thought, a block of time, your sympathetic ear, your warm arms holding her, the touch of you rubbing her back, the flutter of your kiss. Your smile, a hug from you, a sweet hello, you telling her that she looks pretty today, giving her a gift without any other motive other than to let her know that you are thinking about her and of course making a dinner date for just the two of you and don’t forget every girl needs a girls night out so another way to say I love you is to baby sit so she can have some time to herself.

 

Speak Kind Words To Your Sweetheart

Posted in Life, Love, Marriage, Psychology, relationships, Romace, Spiritual by

Love is like a gardenWords can build your sweetheart up or tear them down so it seems that this saying most that most of us grew up hearing from our parents and school teachers was right,” If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Isn’t it amazing how a simply statement like that is so true?

Even small children learn that language is a very powerful instrument and what they utter gets results. When a baby says, Da, Da  or Ma, Ma for the first that little baby receives some awesome responses and that experience becomes forever ingrained in their parents hearts.

Statements like “You’re Brilliant” or “I Just Love The Way Your Mind Works” and this one, “You Are So Intelligent” spoken to your sweetheart can over time change how your sweetheart sees themselves. If your sweetheart was endlessly yelled at or told they were stupid or maybe they were overly criticized as a child they may not know just how brilliant they are and just how much you love and adore them.

It’s never to late to start telling your sweetheart just how wonderful they are and how much they mean to you. After all you’re no dummy and you have chosen them to be your sweetie . . .  so that right there makes them pretty awesome. Doesn’t it?

The more you tell them in all sincerity something  inside of them will start to shift and they will begin to believe you and in them selves and that they aren’t stupid. The more you speak kind and true words into them the more they will become able to believe you and in them selves. You will start to notice that other people will start saying similar things to them and in time the words will change entirely how your sweetheart feels about themselves.

Stop and celebrate your sweethearts intuitive genius and the extraordinary functions of their minds after all they were smart enough to choose to love you that choice right there makes them genius. Doesn’t it? One form of emotional healing comes from the precise use of language and words that you speak to your sweetheart and words that they speak to you. What you say, and what you hear them say, has the power to sculpt how you love and respond to your sweetheart.

Consider the words you utter to your sweetheart as words of great gifts of love and in the midst, marshal this powerful influence and use it to bring life, encouragement, and healing to the one you most adore. Negative words may have shaped your sweethearts early consciousness and their perception of themselves but you see the opposite in them. They may see themselves as, “Ugly” and you see them as,” Beautiful” don’t just tell them one or two times or when your feeling amours tell them often.

Remember silence is like a vacuüm, drawing in all thoughts that go by, so protect your sweethearts ears and be aware what your words imply. Choose your words carefully; think about what you say. Don’t fill the void with just anything, squawking like a jay. Make sure your emotions aren’t trapped elsewhere. Give what you say, meaning; speak and act with care. Then love will sound like a trumpet and to your words impart the clarity of romance as you speak to your sweetheart.

Giving Help Is A Sign Of Love

Posted in Changing Habits, Life, Love, Marriage, Psychology, relationships, Romace, Spiritual by

Woman In WhiteIt can be difficult to ask for help because you don’t want to appear weak or stupid. You don’t want to be turned down or put down. You don’t want to be yelled at or ignored. You don’t want to lose face or have a face made at you. Again. But once you cry out for assistance and that helping hand is next to yours, it’s such a relief and it makes you wonder why you waited so long to ask.

There is no better feeling than to be told help is on the way especially if it comes with two strong hands, a wealth of expertise, a blanket of caring, and a smile. You, see giving help is a sign of love. The person who comes to your aid is living proof that your lives are shared and that you each want to be there for the other with your time, your energy, and your knowledge.

So look at a cry for help as an opportunity to prove the strength of your love to each other. And never be afraid to ask for help . . . not from the one you love and who loves you. If you never ask for anyone’s help, when you do for the first time, you may get a strange reaction. The person you’re asking might not believe you at first. Don’t take their attitude as rejection; it’s just surprise.

To trust means that we start from the position of believing that our sweetheart is motivated by a deep concern for us , that he or she, in spite of occasional missteps or mistakes, truly has our well-being in mind. When we trust, we believe that the other loves us deeply and intends to love us well and long.

Trust images the best; trust expects the happiest possible outcome. Trust serves with joy in the expectation that trust will be returned. Trust develops trust. Acknowledging that the person you love with your heart, your body, your talents, your fears, your children, your worldly goods invites him or her to become even more worthy of that trust. Thus, the more you trust, the safer you become and the more you can love and ask for help. If you have be betrayed this is no easy task. Is it?

Words Are The Wings Of Romance

Posted in Life, Love, Marriage, Psychology, relationships, Romace, Spiritual by

See The Sweet LifeNothing can sustain the high pitch of romance better than beautiful love words, generously and endlessly spoken. Love words are a tonic for love, an elixir for passion, a medicinal balm for fading romance. Life is full of ordinariness, and there isn’t any reason love should be too.

Love is what we fall into in order to partake of magic; Loves is how we fly. Words are the wings of romance, the way in which, more than any other, we elevate ourselves above the ordinary and pedestrian. Everybody wants to hear how much, and precisely why, he or she is loved. Even when we’ve been chosen, even when we’ve tied the knot, we still need verbal reassurance that we are loved.

We need to be endeared, to feel that we are special, delightful, precious, irreplaceable to the one we love. We want to be singled out, to be told we are loved above all by the person who has chosen us. We often think that having feelings about someone is as good as saying it, but it isn’t. Make no mistake . . . words mean a lot to all of us.

We all walk around with a huge collection of insecurities, and none of us is so sure, so cut and dried in our conviction about our own self-worth that we don’t need the inspiration of being told every which way, over and over again, exactly why, how , and how much we are loved.

We need to be told, and the words have to be heartfelt. There’s just no comparison between the abstract  “Of course I love you” and the direct “I love you” no contest between silence and “you’re the light of my life: I want to be with you forever.” Even though some people may think it’s corny, in the delicate layer of even the coolest of cucumber hearts is a lover who yearns to be adorned. There’s a hidden romantic in each of us, the person who fell in love, who was tantalized by music and moonlight, who waited breathlessly to hear the words of  love “I adore you. My Life is better with you in it.”

We want our hearts to be filled by hearing the love words over and over again. So call your sweetheart by a special name and tell her/him often what delights you about her, why you so deeply love him or her. Say the mushy/gushy things you think people only say in love stories and the more romantic and delicious the better. “You’re the woman of my dreams”.  Don’t say you’re the woman of my night mares . . . if that is the truth then heaven help you.   Say things like  . . .  “I love you to pieces.” “You’re my angel.” “You’re my wonderful man.” “You’re a fabulous lover.”

Some people are confused about romance and think it can be bought. While money may be able to help create a romantic atmosphere, romance itself doesn’t ever have a price tag attached to it, nor can it be wrapped up in a box from Tiffany’s. It just needs to be a significant part of you: a thought, block of time, a sympathetic ear, some warm arms, the pressure of a back rub, the flutter of a kiss. Love needs to nestle in the cocoon of romance. You don’t need threads of gold and silver to weave your own safe haven of love. All that’s required is a small part of yourself.

~ Granny In Training~

 

A Little Bit Of Friendship

Posted in friendships, Life, Love, relationships, Women by

girlfriendsGirlfriends always carry each other in their hearts, whether they live near or far from each other. Girlfriends walk through life together. They’re there for each other no what, sharing everything. They wear pretty dresses with flowers in their hair and hum songs to the beat of children’s laughter. They say nothing at time and that silence is the greatest solace. Other times they talk for hours, or until the sun sinks into night. They remember when the days when life was defined by complexity when they dance in the moonlight and vowed that their friendship would last a lifetime.

They wouldn’t trade their friendship for anything and nothing else could begin to bring them contentment, the craziness, the laughter, and all the thousands of things they share together. Friends like that don’t need to see each other everyday . .  . no matter how long it’s been since they were last together, they just pick right where they left off. Friends like that just understand that life isn’t always bright, and they take turns cheering each other up. Girlfriends like that don’t need to tell each other how much they care . . .  They can just feel the strength of their friendship in their hearts and that’s the very best kind of friendship of all.

“Love Is Like A Garden”

Posted in Love, Marriage, Psychology, relationships, Romace by

Romance Is More A DinnerYour love is like a garden and unless you tend to it, you’ll never reap the full rewards that loving someone can bring. The ground needs to be tilled with kindness so your seeds of love can spout.

The seeds have to be planted with care if they are to penetrate your sweethearts heart. Love needs to be watered with kind words and compliments.  Love must bask under the warm sun of your undivided attention.

The weeds of pettiness and lies must be pulled from the field of love. The fruits of love need time to grow and cannot be picked until they are ripe. If you don’t put the required effort  into your garden of love, you can be certain that the weeds will invade and your garden will yield little in the way of love. But if you work at it , you’ll find a bumper crop of love waiting for you to harvest each and every day.

“Sometimes Reclaiming Your Life Means Giving Up The Fariy Tale”

Posted in Divorce, Dreams, family, friendships, Love, Marriage, Psychology, relationships, Romace, Spiritual, Women by

Couple in conflictHave you ever felt that you walked the path of your life alone? That you were the only woman who has ever made a painful, stupid mistake? That you settled for less than you deserved?  Did you desperately desire love above all else? Did you yearn for a real partner so much it hurt: Have you ever thought “Why is every woman but me in a great relationship?  “Why can’t I be that happy?” Or found yourself rejected by the person you loved and it left you feeling that something was wrong with you?

When a devastating breakdown of a relationship ends it can feel like a wild boar‘s tusk ripping through your heart. You can become convinced that you are the only woman who has ever made a complete mess of your life. You feel alone, rejected, and furious that you had deceived yourself for so long. That you had given up on “yourself” to keep the love of another for years, only to be left with a heart torn to shreds.

What women learn shortly after the initial blow of their relationship’s end is that, they failed to understand above all else, is that they needed to honor the most important relationship of all “the one with themselves.” The ending of a relationship becomes the beginning of a journey for women  to learn many things about themselves and how to love and honor themselves.

The journey of being a woman can seem crazy and confusing but for better or worse, women have many of the same stories, heartbreak, obstacles, and expectations. The good news is that women don’t have to remain captive to the limiting beliefs swirling in their psyches and in society, which keeps them far from their dreams. We always have a choice. Along life’s path, we all have the opportunity to gain wisdom from our mistakes, the self-awareness that comes from healing our wounds, and clarity by claiming our needs.

If we are lucky enough to wake up to the immense power that is available to heal our hearts and teach us how to love ourselves, we have a responsibility to share our stories and insights with others. Otherwise, the true power of our realizations will be lost. Sharing allows us to see ourselves in the words of others, gain witnesses to our personal journey, and broaden the possibilities that lie before us.

I, too relied on the wisdom and support of many women, some of them total strangers, to progress through my journey to wholeness.  By watching others and listening, I learned that to fully and wholeheartedly love another I first needed to fully and wholeheartedly embrace ” myself.” This realization is a major source of inspiration in my decision to share my knowledge and experiences with  other women. Women need to share the wisdom gained on their personal path as they went from being a person they thought they had to be to be loved to being the one they actually are.

In them I gained wisdom while on my personal path as I went from being  a person I thought I knew and loved to being one I actually do know and love. We shared our stories about living ordinary lives, raising children, creating a safe home life, the ups and downs of stay at home moms to the working moms. Some of us were married and some single. We talked about many issues like paying bills, being young, and getting older and the list goes on and on and lets not forget divorce as well. We also talked about trying to find sources of love and happiness but often looking in the wrong places. When we stopped and took a careful look at the life we had created and honesty answered this question “Am I honoring the most important relationship in my life first?  The one with my self and God.

We discovered reclaiming our lives meant giving up the fairy tale that we had created about ourselves and instead finding out what reality was. The new path may did not seem clear at the beginning to us  and we felt like we were fumbling in the dark grabbing for something to hold to, then one of my dear friends said, remember this is a normal feeling and keep moving forward and don’t go back. During this time we discovered within ourselves the spirit of survivor and a deeper faith we never knew existed.

 We also learned that loving ourselves is knowing ourselves, enjoying and valuing the women that we are, and understanding that getting to know ourselves and God  is a lifelong personal enterprise. It meant that we needed to  appreciate ourselves as much as we appreciate the ones we love. Loving ourselves is recognizing our gifts and talents and then putting them to good use, acknowledging our flaws and forgiving ourselves for them. We learned that loving ourselves was reaching for more, it was reaching for the best, in ourselves. We discovered that our hearts can only hold as much love as we believe it can. So often women put up with shabby treatment in love because they don’t believe they deserve better or they are still stuck in fairy tale thinking.  So treat yourself better, believe you deserve to be treated well, and you will get treated even more wonderfully in love than any fairy tale woman has ever been. 

Carol. M.

“When Mama Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy!”

Posted in Chidren, family, Family Values, generational changes, grandkids, Grandparenting, Life, Love, Marriage, Parenting, Psychology, Quotes, relationships, Romace, Women by

Many couples are putting their children at the center of the family. This doesn’t sound like a bad thing, after all, aren’t your grandchildren the apple of your eye too? But when parents put their children ahead of  their own needs, ahead of their marriage, it may seem child friendly, but it can lead to complications.

When children are the absolute center of the family, they can grow up without boundaries. This can lead to demanding, entitled kids. Who become demanding, entitled adults. You might have a friend or two who are demanding and they can be difficult to get along with. Can’t they? 

 No one wants their children or grandchildren to turn out to be demanding. Do they? Some acting out might be all right for a child, but future bosses, spouses and friends will probably not be so tolerant. Will they? Furthermore, being the center of the family is too much pressure for most children. Children cannot fulfill all their parents‘ emotional needs and it’s not fair to expect them to. Children in this position often feel they need to parent their parents and that’s not their job. Actually, it’s your job to be there for your children when they are parents.

Remind them to make time for themselves, their spouses and friends if you want to be helpful offer to babysit so they can have a date night or weekend getaway, and you’ll get to spend extra time with your grandchildren.  Bob and Jane being the wise parents and grandparents that they are, offered to babysit their grandchildren while Jim and  Lynn went out on the town.  As Lynn was leaving, she told her children to listen to Nana and Pops and then gave them a kiss on the cheek and thanked her parents.

Well, Bob winked at Lynn while reminding her of this old saying,”When Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” Bob’s point was that couples need to spend time together just the two of  them and keep the romance going.  Now Jim plans romantic surprise date nights at least twice a month and all Lynn has to do is show up . Jim and Lynn are feeling reconnected and Nana and Pops are “Happy Grands.” Jim agrees with Bob “When Mama Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy!

The Mother In Law Relationship Is Complicated

Posted in Chidren, Daughtrer-In-Laws, Divorce, family, generational changes, Life, Love, Marriage, Moms, Mother-In-Laws, Parenting, Psychology, relationships, Women by

The conflicts between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws is still going on it has raged throughout all of history. Nearly 2000 B.C. Rebekah complained to her husband, Isaac, that her daughters-in-law were making her life so miserable that she would rather not even be alive. Read Genesis 27:46).

Today, some 4,000 years later, women are still complaining to their husbands about these women! Mother-in-laws are still wondering why out of all the human relationships, the one between them and their daughter-in-laws is the most complicated? Second only to step relationships of course.

There is a built-in-conflict before the relationship even begins: two radically different views of the same man. The daughter in law will see him first as a man; while the mother in law will always see him first as her child.The mother in law comes into the relationship lugging a suitcase bulging with memories. From the sweetness of babyhood through the tyranny of the teen years into adulthood, these memories have indelibly imprinted her heart. She enters into this life phase acutely aware of a door closing in her life as a mother.

The daughter in law comes waltzing in with a suite case empty of everything but confidence and anticipation. She’s eager to swing open the new door and march in and there lies the basis for struggle. Both the mother in law and the daughter in law are naturally territorial when it comes to their family. Standing in the middle of  these two overlapping territories is a man who is the son of one and husband to the other. It’s in everyone’s interest for the son to step out of the overlapping territory and fully into his wife’s territory and the sooner he does this the better.

The parental relationship is secondary to the spousal relationship, yet the bond between a mother and her child is visceral. The phase “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” refers to husband and wife, yet there is little doubt a mother holding her child in her arms feels more “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” toward her child than she does toward her husband. Again, the basis for conflict between a man’s mother and his wife.

This motherly feeling of “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” had been the source of much marital conflict: a mother consciously or unconsciously placing her child before her husband, magnifying her connection to their child. Even the court system typically give more value to the mother-child relationship.

The undeniable connection can easily cause a mother to overstep her territory and interfere with the process of her adult son transferring thus-far primary relationship, the one he has with her  to the one needs to form with his wife. If you are a mother of a son, you fully understand this tendency, because there is a powerful bond between mother and son. A man’s first significant relationship is with his mother. That bond, forged at birth, leaves a permanent imprint on both mother and son. Even if the relationship is broken, it continues to significantly impact both lives. This powerful attachment between mother and son needs to be and must be reassigned when the son introduces another woman into the picture.

Here is a scenario to consider “Suppose your son, yourself and your daughter in law were in a boat together. If the boat capsized and you and your daughter in law were both drowning, who should he save?  You might be saying to yourself, ” A man can always get another wife, but he has only one mother.”  or a daughter in law might be thinking to herself,” well his mother is old any way.” Now, now is that anyway to be thinking?

As a mother you should want your son to have a strong and healthy relationship with his wife. A mother who wants to maintain a close relationship with her son, who truly has his best interests in mind, must willingly step back and fully acknowledge and respect the relationship he is forming with his wife.

Whether she likes the woman or not. There is nothing to be gained, and much to be lost, by allowing competition to into the in law relationship. While the mother may not view her behavior as being competitive, the truth is that anything she does to maintain her status as the first woman,” whether consciously or unconsciously, will be viewed by the daughter in law as competition.

 Sometimes completely innocent behavior on the mother’s part will be wrongly interpreted this way. Knowing, this the wise mother will refuse to take offense and will carefully watch her behavior until he daughter-in-law is secure in her position. 

 Five years ago my friend Jane’s son  David married a terrific gal named Liz and on the day of their wedding Jane’s mother in law shared some advice with Jane. She said, that she chose to forget everything she had ever knew about her son and let her daughter in law discover him for herself. As any mother can image that is not easy to do. Is it? Jane and her mother in law are truly friends and enjoy each others company.

 Jane, decided  she wanted to have the same kind of relationship with her daughter in law so she decided to take her mother in laws advice and chose to forget everything she ever knew about her son David and let Liz discover him for herself.” It was a choice that has richly rewarded Jane over and over and over again. She said ,she loves how excited Liz gets when she learns something knew about David and Jane enjoys Liz’s excitement,friendship plus she completely understands why her son loves his wife as much as he does.

A successful relationship with your in-law does not necessarily mean you become best friends. It doesn’t necessarily mean enjoying lunch dates or shopping together like Jane and Liz do. Success is simply determining to live peaceably with her by any means. Success is getting up every morning and determining to leave the past in the past. Whatever your history is with your in-law find a way to make admins and move on.

Success is recognizing that at the center of your conflict is a man you both love, children you both love, and finding a way to make room for each of you to benefit from and express that shared love.
Success is consistently acting in love and letting go of the negative emotions you may have toward your in-law,start refusing to let those emotions color the quality of your life for one more minute.

Your love is like a garden, and unless you tend to it, you’ll never reap the full rewards that love can bring.

 

The Wubbolus World OF Grandmothers

Posted in Babies, family, Family Values, generational changes, grandkids, Grandparenting, Life, Moms, relationships, traditions, Women by

Margaret Mead wrote: “The closet friends I have made all through my life have been people who grew up close to a loved and loving grandmother or grandfather.”

In part, she attributed the strong bond between grandchildren and grandparents to the fact that they are united against a “common enemy” the parents.

 It begins to dawn on new grandmothers before that wonderful bundle of joy is brought home from the hospital that this grandmother business can be much more complicated that they had ever imagined.

 When a baby is born, so is a grandmother and that is the beginning of a new love story fresh from heaven. There is nothing for a grandmother to do except love her grandchildren. As days and months follow grandmothers soon learn they can love their grandchildren fiercely, with a passion that can make them hunger for them when they are out of range.

Grandmothers know that their own children love but can they trust them to baby sit? That is an interesting question, isn’t it? You might assume automatically that all grandparents are natural baby sitters but that is not the case in many families.

 Sometimes grandmothers feel like they are auditioning for the role of the” baby sitter grandmother.” Even though your children love you that doesn’t mean that they can trust you with their new bundle of joy. Does that shock you? After all, you are full of motherly wisdom and all that expertise you gained through your years of motherhood. You know how to hold a new-born properly, you are capable of changing their diaper and you know all the ends and outs of bottle feeding. Wait, wasn’t that stomach-down or is it stomach-up just what Dr. Spock advise? 

A wise grandmother will get rid of her’ ” know it all attitude” and ask her little of bundle from heaven parents how they want their child or children cared for and follow their requests because it’s what is best for your grandchild and if your children are happy with you and trusting you then you will have all the Grandmother time you need and that makes for a happy family. 

However with that being said, I suggest that you learn how to pronounce all the tongue twister words in “The Cat In The Hat” books before your grandchild is born. I am recommending this base on an experience that I had while reading to my oldest grandson when he was three or four. He blurted out to me these words to me ” you can’t read very good”, so I don’t want you to read to me any more.

Needless to say I felt crushed but after thinking about it a few seconds I had to agree with him. At the time I didn’t realize I was trying to read made up words by the author Theodor Geisel known as Dr. Seuss. This kind of unexpected situation is not listed in any grandparenting book, so I decided I better get the word out to other grandmothers, so they can be better prepared because there is nothing we enjoy more than our hugs and our reading time with our grandchildren. Is there?

 If you can’t figure out how to pronounce some of the words in your grandchildren tongue twister books ask one of your seasoned grandmothers chances are they have already been through the ranks and will be more than glade to save you from being crushed when your grandchild tells you not to read to them cause you don’t read so good. Welcome to the Wubbolus World of Grandmothers and The Wubbolous World of Dr. Seuss.