JusJoJan - 16/1/20 - Experience

These prompts are brought to you by Linda G Hill.

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Your prompt for JusJoJan January 16th, 2020, is “experience.” Use the word “experience” any way you’d like. Enjoy!
 

There is a lot of talk today about life experiences.  Gifts are being steered away from actual "things" (of which we all probably have enough if not a surplus) to "experiences".  There are so many options available to us for experiences.

 

Personally I don't hanker after being driven round a race track at a scarily high speed or plunging through white waters in a flimsy boat.  I certainly don't want to try out the latest theme park ride or biggest rollercoaster etc.  

 

Life is an experience enough thank you very much.

 

I've experienced new life coming into the world 4 times now.  The first 3 times were my own children.  I always thought 4 would be a good number but it took me 2 attempts to come anywhere near the idyllic birth that so many women hanker after.  (No pain relief, dim lights, water birth and so on.)

 

Mine were: 

 

1) nearly disastrous (interventions followed by a hastily arranged caesarian delivery under general anaesthetic.  We still sometimes joke our daughter could be anyones but her striking resemblence to family members confirms otherwise.)

 

2) assisted - if anyone gives you the option of pushing or forceps PUSH! and

3) as perfect as it was going to get for me - no interventions, little pain relief and yet the biggest baby of the 3.  

 

The kids often accuse me of making this one my favourite because of it but as they know, I don't do favourites!  I tried my best to be very fair to them when they were growing up whilst also pointing out that from my experience life isn't always fair!

 

Having managed a straightforward delivery and realising that 2 hands with 3 children under four were not enough I decided we would stick at 3.

 

The fourth birth I witnessed was that of my eldest grandson.  He arrived when my daughter was only just 29 weeks pregnant and events happened so fast that I found myself in the delivery room trying to support my daughter and daughter-in-law as best I could.  I'm glad I was there for them and the ongoing support I was able to give during their journey through NICU but I wouldn't want to repeat the experience.  I waited a long few weeks for this first cuddle.

 

 

Unfortunately I've also experienced death. Close at hand with my Dad but first hand with both my Mum and my Mother-in-law.  

I've also had the experience of receiving news by telephone that a loved one (hubby) had been involved in an accident, was in hospital and I needed to come.  Now!  Fortunately that one had a happy ending.

I've experienced first hand the effect suicide has had on a family.  I wouldn't wish that on anyone but the whole situation gave me knowledge that has proved useful.

I've experienced bullying in my workplace that meant a very dark period in my life and a change in direction.

But if all that sounds gloomy I've also had some wonderful experiences too.

We've travelled to North America, Australia, experienced the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong and seen a fair bit of Europe.

We've had 3 wonderful but different wedding experiences with our kids and now of course we're experiencing what it's like to be Grandparents (great!) and retirement.

 

Yes my life might seem a bit boring and unexciting but I'm happy with it, especially when I sit back and look at the 3 kids we've raised and feel proud of what good people they've turned out to be.  Hopefully my experience has had some input into how that happened! 

 

 

Hmm, this jot turned into a bit of a waffle!