Stories

I believe in the power of family stories.  That is a lot of why I write this blog, because I want to write the down the adventures and stories that happen before I forget them.  So that I can look back, so that my children can look back.

Tonight, I was putting Willow to bed. She wanted a story.  What she wanted was one of the imaginative stories her father tells her at bedtime.  He has characters and everything.  I am not good at making up stories like that.  And she knows this, so we have started a tradition that I tell her stories of my past.  I have told her the story of how her dad and I met.  Tonight, I told her about my Grammie and how she used to have a metal tin of peanuts that she would use to feed squirrels in her back yard. It was something that made me feel good--to relive something from my past, to make her live again.  To share and hope that some day my child will share that story with others.

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Michael had to write an essay about a personal hero.  It is hard to see his work--he is protective of it and doesn't really let us look at his homework.  (I figure as long as he is getting good grades, its okay)  I did inquire, like I usually do, and he let me know it was going to be about his Grandpa Michael.  I let Chewy know it was going to be about his father.  A figure that Michael only knows about through stories that Chewy has told him...because he died before Michael was born.  Chewy was able to find the essay (I think the rough draft).  He writes some stories that about him and then explains the adversity in his Grandfathers life, how there were certain things he wanted to do, but was not able to do.  He concludes with:

"It taught me that there are always things there to stop you from getting to your goal (and you can't let them). It taught me that a real hero doesn't even have to be well known or recognized. A real hero is a someone who means something to you. They stand as a symbol for what is right and what you can do. Most of all my Grandfather's story is what encourages me to do the kind of things he dreamed of, to go the distance he went, and to leave a mark for the good of society where he couldn't. My Grandfather is my greatest hero. May he rest in peace."

I guess one never knows where those stories can lead.