my mother, my daughter, myself

it always amazes me that when i was younger i was absolutely sure that i was completely different than my mother in all ways. but now that im a lot older and a little bit wiser,i know that is simply not true. so often now when i laugh i sound like my mother, when i speak i hear her ideas emanating from my mouth and when i give my daughter advice there are many times i tell her the same things that my mother told me.

equally interesting is the fact that when my daughter was younger, i used to look at her and listen to her and think that she was nothing like me, and that i wished she was at least a little like me. now that she is older and i take the time to listen to her thoughts and hopes and wishes, when she laughs i hear myself and when she speaks i hear myself and some of her ideas are the same as mine.

i've heard many times adults make comments about how their parents were being completely wrong in just about everything, but now that they are older they are surprised at just how smart their parents are actually. so i feel sure that there were many times my daughter thought the same when she was younger. even though we do not openly disagree all the time but we still had our moments. often she kept her opinions to herself when we disagree and she thought i was completely off-base with my comments/opinions. now however when we speak, since i hear many of my opinions and thoughts in her voice, it would appear that we've reached the place in our relationship where we mutually respect each others opinions because quite frankly so many of our opinions are the same. so now i come to think !....what does all these mean? it is likely that much of what we think and do and say have been formatted in our minds by the people who helped us grow up? so this does not surprise me at all, now when i hear my daughter say something that my mother use to tell me too.

my mother, my daughter, myself--we are all bound together by family ties; all different in many ways, yet also all alike in many, many wonderful ways.