The Wrong Turns

So many times, 

I have wished I could have lived my life

without any wrong turns.  

In reality, that path doesn't exist.  

We fall, we get lost, we make mistakes,

We get up and live!

These are a few of my little testaments to living.  They remind me that I am loved, even when I don't feel lovable.  I tend to be very hard on myself.  I remember the mistakes I make.  I would give anything to be able to go back and change them, yet I know, that they have led me to this place with all these little people who remind me that it is okay to not be perfect.  They love me anyway.  

You can see how much fun they are having (and how little attention they are paying to the photographer, who is me!)  They laugh, they giggle, they play, they run, they want to come to my house and be in the woods and spend time together.  They want to help Papa with the fire and the chickens, they want to drink hot chocolate and eat brownies and most of all, they want to snuggle into any lap that can hold them.   My lap expands to hold those children.  My love grows a little more each and every time a new one is born.  

When I look into those faces, I see that no matter how many wrong turns I have taken, those turns have led me right to them.  Right to this single wonderful and beautiful moment.  I was a mother first, then a grandmother.  I made mistakes, but I also taught my children what love really is.  I taught them what being a family means.  I taught them that they are worth so very much.  They, in turn taught their children those things which were most important of all.  It comes right back to me with little hearts and sticky kisses.  I have been so very blessed.  

They teach me to get up and live!!