Looking in the Mirror…

I just spent a few days visiting my folks in another state and was struck.. probably for the 1,000th time that I am so much a part of them, and they are part of me. I look like them and act like them and view life like they do. When I am with them, I feel like the daughter and not the mother and grandmother that I am the rest of the time. In my Mother's kitchen, I know where every thing is because it is in the same place in my kitchen (and in my daughter's kitchen). Once when we were all together... we discovered that my daughter, my mother and I all had nearly identical purses. That is wierd. I live alone... but I am not just some random person but a collection of thoughts and lenses and physcial traits and emotional traits and even spiritual traits that have been passed thru... and I in turn, have done my own passing on.

When I look at my parents, I can see what I am going to look like in just 20 short years! I watch them and realize that is what I will be doing 20 short years from now. Time is a continuim.. and my daughter looks at me and cannot understand how she will ever look or be like me in 20 years. But after 50 years of watching my Mom... I know that I will become her, because I am her, now, 20 years ago.

We think we live so isolated. We are individuals. We have our own lives and make our own decisions and choices. But we are parts of family.. good and bad that we were genetically attached to. For years I have thought it was so funny. I always think my sister and I are sooooo different. She lives across town and I see her only infrequently. But I talk to her almost daily. I always said,

“she’s blonde, I am brunette;
she’s country, I am rock and roll;
she is short, I am (was…) tall;
she liked cooking, I liked sewing;
then she liked sewing, and I liked cooking.”

I think you see the trend here. However, in recent years I have been struck by her gut reactions to situations and stories that are exactly like mine! How does that happen?

Clearly the nuts do not fall far from the tree