Never Too Late to Start Again
It’s never too late to start something new or recreate yourself. And with the right tribe, anything is possible.
I used to feel cheated because, at age 50+, I am learning skills that I should have learned as a child growing up. I know this because I watch the encouraging life lessons that my grandsons (age 6 and 1-1/2 at the time of this writing) receive from the tribe around them.
My tribe consisted of a single mom and five other siblings, of which I am the youngest. And before you think it, yes, this article may sound like it’s coming from a spoiled brat who was the youngest of six kids. Besides that, :-) still, I didn’t notice the same encouragement, support, and cheerleading squad my grandbabies receive. Or at least it didn’t seem that way as a child.
As a mother and now a grandmother, I wish I could ask my mother’s forgiveness for the type of mother I thought she should have been.
Raising children is challenging, and raising six kids alone seems almost unimaginable. So I don’t blame my mom anymore for not being the soccer mom or the host parent house where my friends could come and hangout.
I am grateful to her for keeping us safe, under one roof, with food on the table. I can clearly see that my mom was more focused on survival for herself and her six kids than on PTA meetings and cheerleading practice.
And if I really think about it, most of my siblings did their best to encourage and protect me.
Now I Parent Myself
I am learning to give myself the grace that I give my grandson Nova when he becomes frustrated when learning something new is difficult. He gets so worked up when he can’t figure out how to beat the dragon in a video game or when he is learning a new math equation.
When I decided to uncover my dream to be a writer again, all species of self-sabotaging voices appeared in my head. Still, I talked to myself as if I was talking to a young Pam and said, Yes, learning new things is scary, but it is also exciting because you expand who you are. You got this.
I remind myself that I will have forgotten this scary newness in time and will be more proficient in my skills as a freelance writer and web developer.
Instead of focusing on what I didn't receive as a child, I nudge my focus back to my present tribe, including me, supportive, encouraging, and cheerleaders.
