I have unfortunately been witnessing my cousin battle with cancer, and as I watch her kids (who are grown up and working) hover over her, waiting on her hand and foot, I realised how strange this world is. At one time, the tables were turned; she was caring for them 24/7, rescheduling her life to cater to them, and staying up with them if they were ill. Now, they are taking time off work, rescheduling their lives to make sure she is never alone, and making sure is she taken care of.
The word "parents" gets a whole new meaning when you, yourself become one. Suddenly, it's strikes like an epiphany: "oh, so this is how much love, time and effort it took for my parents to raise me." "Ok, this is why my mom seemed exhausted a lot of the time." "My mom had every right to yell at me when I said this."
And then you begin to realise things that might cause you shame. For me, I now realise how much it must have stung when I compared my mom to other moms and told her I wished she was more like them. I now understand that during our fights, she must have cried too. I now understand how much sacrifice it took for my dad to work so hard to provide and educate the eight of us!
If you will go away with one thing after reading this post, let it be the realisation that most of us barely do enough to repay our parents. Most of use the excuse that we are busy, forgetting that their lives must have been busy as well, but they chose us.
After seeing my cousin and realising how fickle life is, I don't think any of us can afford to waste more time to really appreciate our parents as they should be appreciated.
1 comment:
God bless our parents.
I pray one day I can be as amazing as they are.
We don't say "thank you" enough for all the heart ache and relentless work they did for us and are doing for our children now.
They were great parents and now are even greater grand parents.
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