Life is a collection of stories.

Life is made up of so many stories. Sometimes, some trivial daily chore will bring back into our memory the stories of our lives.

This week while visiting my local supermarket, I was in the checkout line behind a very elderly gentleman who was accompanied by another man much younger in age. I don’t know their relationship to one another but they were there to buy something for the older man who was clearly too old to accomplish the task by himself. The groceries were paid for and the older man was gently led out the store by his younger companion.

Suddenly, my mind was flooded by memories of my own experience with my elderly mother.

My mom was in her late eighties when she came to spend some time with us. Her health was diminishing rapidly and her mind was not as alert as it once was but she still enjoyed the opportunity to visit the local supermarket. She needed help in and out of the car and she shuffled around at a snail pace which made the trip longer and required a strong measure of patience; but I enjoyed the chance to take her with me. Her face lit up at the invitation to come with me to the grocery store. Sometimes I even made up an excuse to take her somewhere just to see the joy that it brought her as she shuffled around looking at all the interesting things the trip offered.

I knew that her time left with us would come to an end and that this time together, simple as it was, was to be endured and at the same time cherished.

A few months after returning home, My mom passed away. Those trips with Mom will always be a great memory for me.

I miss those times; I miss you Mom.

I am grateful for a trip to the supermarket that brought back memories of the trips to the supermarket with my mom.

Catching up!

Life often has a tendency to get ahead of us. Sometimes everything comes at you at the same time and your time is absorbed by things you hadn’t budgeted time doing. Well, the last 4 weeks have been exactly that situation for us.

I have been juggling business pressures and personal life priorities. Now I am finally getting caught up and can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

The great life lesson from all of this has been to test my perseverance and commitment to my goals.

One of the best things to happen in the last 4 weeks is the addition of a new family member to our family. No, not another grandchild but something very similar… We adopted a puppy. Big deal, so you may say, but not for us. We have never had a pet in our entire 30 plus years of marriage. We were adamant our children could not have a dog. We knew the novelty would wear off and we would be left with the doggie chores. Not to mention the fact that our nomadic life has taken us to 3 continents and 5 countries and not having a dog under those circumstances has been a blessing. We were so anti – pet that we weren’t sure who we disliked more a dog or a dog owner.

So here we are with this cute and adorable puppy in our lives. There are no accidents in life. We have come to see this puppy as a blessing in our lives; when everything around us has been crazy we have someone to make us laugh and show affection to us at times when we are too busy for affection.

Thank you Coco!

 Now we just have to find a way to get our children to recover from the state of shock this has caused them!