Learning through life's experiences

Experience is the best teacher. I have heard this over and over for as long as I can remember. I think back quite often to my younger years of life as I'm now in my senior years. Sometimes I find myself dwelling on past experiences, especially the ones that didn't turn out the way I wished they would have. But of course, we can't turn the clock back, even though we'd like to at times. We need to let go of the past and move on. Life is too short to dwell on the past.

Some of my past experiences I had, I'm still living with today. Religion and a belief in God is something I experienced as a child, and I still make this a very important part of my everday life. Some of my views on religion have changed since my childhood. That is in part because the church has changed their views on many issues over the years. I still believe in the good lord though, just as I did when I was a child. My parents gave me the opportunity to experience religious beliefs, and for that I'm very thankful.

I experienced the pain of becoming a widow at a very young age and having to bear a child without having a husband around, and raising that child alone for a number of years, until I remarried. That experience, as painful as it was, forced me to grow up and be a responsible parent at a young age. I made many mistakes going through those years as a single mother, and some of those mistakes still haunt me today. But again, we can't turn that clock back. We just have to hope we learned something from those past experiences, and grow from them. I did learn just how hard a job parenting can be at times, and what my parents must have gone through while raising ten children.
Today, I'm so glad I had the opportunity to have my son and raise him. He was a gift from God.
He also has gifted me with 4 grandsons. It's his turn now to experiece parenting with all its trials and tribulations, as well as its joys. He tells me he realizes what I must have experienced while parenting. He says he learns something new everyday, good or bad.

Some years ago we had a house fire that totally destroyed the interior of our recently remodeled home. From that experience I learned a house can be rebuilt. You need to be patient but in due time, it will be liveable again.
Four grandsons slept in the room where the fire started, only hours before. Their grandfather had taken them to the park when the fire occured. Their lives couldn't have been

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