October 16--What Sort of Influence?

You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself. 
--Eleanor Roosevelt

    Mrs. Roosevelt was quite a wise woman. We have all heard the phrase (possibly from our own parents), "do as I say, not as I do." We certainly know that one doesn't work! The way you live overrides anything you say. It is your walk, not your talk, that speaks the loudest and carries the most influence. My mother never told my brothers and me to become addicts. She modeled it to us in assorted ways from day one, and we took to it "naturally." This was all unconscious, mind you. She gave us what she had become herself. I feel a lot of compassion toward her because she never really knew (or at least acknowledged) the true source of her misery.

    My sons have very different personalities, a meld of influences largely from Mom, Dad, and brother. Thankfully I recognized my addiction around the time my older son was born. I sought help so that a) the influence of addiction would not pass to yet another generation, and b) my sons would see a successful method for handling life that I did not experience while growing up. I believe it was a better influence than I had.

    Life is good and mysterious,

        Leta

Some of the fam on a windy spring CO hike--
the influence is LOVE!