We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.
David SuzukiRead
One of the joys of being a grandparent is getting to see the world again through the eyes of a child.
Interpretation
Being a grandparent allows one to experience the innocence and wonder of childhood anew.
This quote highlights the unique perspective that grandparents gain when they interact with their grandchildren. It suggests that through observing the world as seen by a child, grandparents can rediscover joy, curiosity, and a fresh appreciation for life's simple pleasures, thus rejuvenating their own outlook on life.
In practice
In a family gathering, I shared this quote to express how much joy my grandchildren bring into my life.
We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.
As parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts we need to start getting out into nature with the young people in our lives. Families play a key role in getting kids outside.
The medical literature tells us that the most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many more problems are through healthy diet and exercise. Our bodies have evolved to move, yet we now use the energy in oil instead of muscles to do our work.
Do you know how much land is under ice, rock and snow? Do you know why 90 percent of us live within 100 kilometres of the U.S. border? We have this idea we're a vast country. But the reality is that a lot of it, a huge amount, is uninhabitable.
We no longer see the world as a single entity. We've moved to cities and we think the economy is what gives us our life, that if the economy is strong we can afford garbage collection and sewage disposal and fresh food and water and electricity. We go through life thinking that money is the key to having whatever we want, without regard to what it does to the rest of the world.
The future doesn't exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future, we're the only animal that realized we can affect the future by what we do today.
If I do my job well, then God will smile on my offspring and on their offspring. I'm sure my father is seeing a blessing in me.
Our parents set the moral tone of the family. They expected more of some of us and less of others, but never less than they thought we were capable of.
I think that in order to parent effectively, we are going to have to admit two things: We can't keep our children safe. We can't accept the fact that we can't keep our children safe.
As I contemplate the kind of future I want for children-my own and other people's-I believe we must look inward to God for guidance and strength and backward to draw on the values and legacies of our families, ancestors, and communities.
That's the nature of being a parent, Sabine has discovered. You'll love your children far more than you ever loved your parents, and -- in the recognition that your own children cannot fathom the depth of your love -- you come to understand the tragic, unrequited love of your own parents.
Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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