A House Full of Memories - SOLD

When I was in Nursing School I learned about Erik Erikson's stages of life.  Of course, at the time I was more interested in the Young Adult stage thinking that the Middle Adulthood and Late Adulthood stages were so far away that they only related to my elderly patients.  Ha!  Now I am really interested in those stages.  Erikson stated that individuals between 40 and 65 years of age fall into the Middle Adulthood stage and it is a stage of generatively versus stagnation.  Generativity is when the adult instills a sense of care and responsibility in passing on their learnings to the next generation through parenting or mentoring.  If the individual is bitter or unhappy, they may stay restless and isolated without making any positive contribution to society.  In Late Adulthood, those who are 65 years and older are in the stage of ego integrity versus despair.  If they feel satisfied and take pride in what they did in their lives, they flaunt their wisdom and accept age with grace.  Those who believe they underachieved or have regrets fall into despair.  I came across another philosophy of the stage of the human life cycle by Thomas Armstrong.  He stated that Mature Adulthood encompasses those who are ages between 50 and 80 years of age.  They have raised families, established themselves in their work life and become contributors to the betterment of society through volunteerism, mentorships, and other forms of philanthropy.  All of humanity benefits from their benevolence.  Moreover, we all can learn from their example to give more of ourselves to others.  Supporting each other through these life cycles is very important.  Many times during Mature Adulthood we have to make decisions that remind us we are moving into a new phase.  Selling of our long time home where we raised our families, retiring from our jobs that have held certain pieces of our self esteem, or maybe even coming to grips with a lack of physical strength or agility that we once took for granted.  Major life events. When I was asked to paint this commission of the long time home of someone's parents who are relocating, I had these ideas in my mind.  I thought what a thoughtful gift to give parents who might be crossing in to a new phase of life.  A gift that says, "I see you, I love you and I appreciate your life."  A real honor.

Three's Company - SOLD

 This Holiday weekend we spent time with grandkids and kids at the lake.  There was a lot of swimming, boating, riding on tubes, eating, playing and laughing.  I could not help to look at my grandkids who some are now taller than me and wonder when did they grow up?  I can remember when my kids, their parents, were the kids.   At that time, I was trying to balance a job, going to graduate school and feeding and bathing three kids.  I thought some days my life was impossible and I would never have a minute to myself again.  Older women told me that my children would grow up so fast and the time would just fly by.  I didn't think so.

When all the kids left the lake this week, my husband and I were on the deck with a lot of quiet.  We both said we could not believe how fast the years had gone.  Our kids are now grown up adults and their kids are well on their way to becoming adults.  There are times when I think my way of thinking is so right but I see the fault in that now.  I was so wrong.  I now have a lot of minutes to myself and at times secretly wish to revisit those old days when I was a young mother with days full of chaos.