Skáldskapr: Our Family

Question: If I had to say what is the single, most important key to a successful life. What would it be? 

My family. My family is so important in all the areas of my personal growth. Whether it be my intellectual growth with working through mathematics, spiritual growth in helping them to come to terms with the world around them, or my physical growth in staying active so I can keep up with them, the story is exactly the same. I need them, and they need me. Family is more than the people I live with, it includes my older children who have moved away to have their own families, as well includes a select few individuals outside our immediate blood family who have been with me through the many challenges in my life. There are several I can identify right now.

Ultimately, it really boils down to living where you are. If you don’t love where you are right now, then you need to get to a place where you can. While family is very important to me, living where I am is more so. Sometimes it’s not easy living where you’re at, you may have made some poor choice in the past, and now you’re surviving the consequences of that. I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart, embrace where you are today. Understand that life is a journey, and we must learn and adapt to what the Creator has in store for us.

TEACHING:  

Family is like the world around us. There is some bad weather, some good weather, and yet the mountains stand next to us, while the sun warms us even during the bad weather. We must be like the lands, and accept the pelting of rain, the shivers of winter, to enjoy the warm of the sun.

While many say the blood is thicker than water, I’ll add that those whom you have decided to invite to your inner circle are the definition of family.