… Claudia asked me if my mother’s view towards the faith had changed any since I had hit my thirties and my mother had grown older. I thought about that for a moment. And it was so. … Having raised all her children to adulthood and finding herself more alone after they had all left home, Claudia posited that my mother had suddenly perhaps had time for the first time in many years to examine her faith on a different level. I supposed that could be true. Perhaps the softening I was witnessing was the beginning of her entering a different understanding of her faith and this new time in her life.
… Could it be that my mother was becoming akin to my grandmother in her view of her faith and what it meant in her life? That was worth a thought. We do the best we can with what we have, when we have it. Was my mother just doing the best she could with what she had? Did my grandmother do much the same? … This striving for goodness in their children, the only way they knew how, how could I fault them for that? Wouldn’t I do the same for my own child? Wouldn’t I try to imbue in them the same sense of family, tradition, morals, and values that had led me through my life and had given me a place to turn to in times of struggle? … I decided to, finally, cut my mother some slack. She had her journey to make and I had to let her make it. …
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For additional excerpts from Sarah’s on-going blog, click on this link: A Confirmed City Girl looks for God in a Monastery
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