my gratitude runs deep

My Grandparents: Gwendolyn & U.E. Mathis

Every year at this time I think about all the people in my life that I am grateful for and say a special prayer of gratitude for the two people who are no longer in my physical life, but still have an enormous impact on all that surrounds me, my grandparents.  It was 7 years ago that my grandmother past away, but a day doesn't go by that she and my grandfather aren't on my mind and talked about.  I imagine my grandmother's voice singing along while Jetta is playing the piano or I imagine her holding my new baby in her warm loving arms and looking at me with love and compassion. I imagine my grandfather proudly telling everyone he knows about how talented each of his great-grandchildren are and wanting to be there to teach them chess, beat them at gin rummy, or just take them to the park and talk about life. Each night Jetta and pilot still want to use great grandma Gwendolyn's silverware and feel safe in bed each night knowing that they have two special angels watching over them. 

I have been doing a lot of thinking this year about life and death as we welcomed this new person to our family. Eventually we too will have to say goodbye....for now. I have a picture of my grandmother as a little girl on my dresser in my room. She was so little and cute, just like Jetta, and had her whole life ahead of her, That moment was as real as my own childhood and now hers is over and I have children of my own. Life is so fleeting, yet each moment is never ending because it makes its imprint on you and the whole universe. 

My grandparents were two very special small stones in a great big ocean but I am still feeling the kind, soft, loving  waves they made. Those ripples will go on and on and have already been imprinted on me and my children and their children's children. More important than even genetics, these waves of kindness impact every cell in our bodies and change who we are, They shape every aspect of our lives, My heart beats to the rhythm that was created by my grandparents and past to my mother and now I see that joyful spirit living on in my children and I know that they feel it too. They have been touched and formed by the presence of these angels and I live in gratitude each day for this.

my grandmother pulling her sister

my grandfather, mother and grandmother

my Mom and me