Thanks to Clive over at https://cliveblogs.wordpress.com/  for nominating me for the ‘Three Quotes for Three Days’ challenge.  I’ve decided to incorporate this into my Thursday blogs for the next few weeks, and so here’s the first quote below:

The rules of the challenge are:

  1. Three quotes for three days.
  2. Three nominees each day (no repetition).
  3. Thank the person who nominated you.
  4. Inform the nominees.

Here’s a good one from Helen Keller, a truly inspirational lady:

‘Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood’.

I’m of the opinion that not only are we learning lessons and gaining insight as we travel through life, we are also here to grow spiritually. It’s this spiritual growth as we reach maturity and beyond,  which makes us realise the reason why we were put on this earth in the first place.

As children, teenagers and twentysomethings,  it’s all me, me, me, and more about me.  We know all there is to know.  We are obsessed with ourselves, with our appearance, with finding the perfect life partner, and with getting the right job.

By the time we reach our thirties, generally speaking we might have found the right partner, have a career, or have a child or children.  It’s the children who focus our attention away from ourselves and onto another dependent little being.  Children want instant gratification, and do not care what we look like. Their demands are insatiable, and they will make sure that one way or another, they will get what they want.

Moving on into the forties.  Our children are growing up into stroppy teenagers who know everything, and think that their parents are stupid, staid beings who should only exist to hand out money every five minutes.  However, us middle-aged morons are actually subtly guiding , helping and advising our young people as well as handing out money, but do they listen to our advice?  Some may do, but the majority probably do not.

In our fifties our children are grown and we must learn to live with just the occasional visit as they build their lives.  With a mortgage paid off, we hopefully have more disposable income and time for our own pursuits and dream holidays that we could not afford when we had young children to look after.  We might well focus more on our partner again after the hectic years of childrearing, and realise there may be things that each one does not like about the other. These things might be fixable through forgiveness, tolerance and patience, which we have learned  during our busy years of being parents.

Grandchildren might abound during our sixties and beyond, but we must be mindful that we are one step away, and let our children bring up their young in the way they have planned.  Grandchildren can benefit from our time, attention and experience, and we are there to offer babysitting in order to give harassed parents short breaks.

However, along our journeys we have gained insight not only from family, but also from friends, which have also taught us life lessons.  We learn that finding the perfect partner and having children is not an automatic right, and there are some people in life who may never accomplish either one, although they may have the perfect job.  Life is a lottery; you win on the swings, but may lose on the roundabouts.

So, what lessons have we learned by the time we get into old age?  In my opinion to grow spiritually means to learn forgiveness, patience, tolerance, acceptance of things we cannot change, and the ability to love.  As far as I’m concerned we were put on the earth to learn these things, and for some of us it takes years and years to accomplish (especially forgiveness and accepting things we cannot change!) before we can finally be at peace with ourselves.

What lessons do you think we learn as we travel along life’s rocky road? 

For the Three Quotes in Three Days challenge I’m nominating:

Sacha Black  https://sachablack.co.uk/

Tara Sparling  https://tarasparlingwrites.com/

Chris Harrison  https://theopeningsentence.wordpress.com/

I can’t wait to read their quotes!