Family Grace
Sometimes as a parent you are blessed to be given tangible evidence of the power of grace in the everyday activities of your life. As the mother and step-mother of 5, ranging in age from 39 to 17, I value those touches of grace that let me know that maybe, just maybe, some things went right in my children's childhoods. My daughter Erin, a college junior, gifted me with this when she handed me a poem she wrote.
Interestingly, some of her inspiration came from a family tradition that I have always felt a little guilty about. Instead of saying the traditional Catholic Prayer Before Meals, we hold hands and sing the first verse of the Johnny Appleseed Grace, yelling "yeah God!" at the end. (What kid doesn't like yelling.) Have no idea how this got started but at some point it became one of those threads that makes the Petrick family who we are. Guess I should let go of a little bit of the Catholic guilt.
To introduce myself and my family to you I'd like to share Erin's poem.
Blessings, Carolyn (I'd love to hear about a touch of grace in your life.....)
FAMILY GRACE by Erin Petrick
- Open the cabinets
- and put away
- the packages of Love.
- Warming the memories,
- the yesterdays, the hopes
- for tomorrows-
- Boil away the fears.
- Here is home.
- Hold my hand while we pray,
- interlocking fingers
- hold each other together.
- Fingers counting blessings,
- My sisters, my brother, my parents,
- my pride, my gift.
- Talk to me while you eat.
- Nourish me, I'll nourish you.
- Feed my heart, my mind, my soul.
- Energy to be His.
- To find grace in the future.
- Stay at my table,
- Even when I ask you to leave.
- Here I find my daily bread,
- waiting when I'm starving most.
- Here is home.