Twelve
Spiritual Happiness will Bond All Civilizations Who Hear It
Between 1979 and 1993 my wife, Judie, and I adopted six wonderful children. The first child was Gary, age 8 from Connecticut whom we adopted in 1980. The next three children were adopted from Korea two years apart in 1983, 1985, and 1987 at three months of age: Jesse, Bill and Josh. In 1993 we adopted a brother and sister, Lukas and Catie, ages 5 and 2 from Columbia who had been separated for two years. In each situation there were some adults who thought our efforts were too challenging, others who thought we were putting ourselves at risk and others who were overwhelmed with international adoptions.
We considered these children a gift from God and an opportunity to bring children into our family who otherwise would have never seen life beyond orphanages and foster homes. There was a period of adjustment for everyone as each child entered the family. As parents, we had the most adjustments and found parent support groups to be most helpful. As we were adjusting to each adoption, we also worked with "Heal the Children" and opened our home to international children in crisis who needed medical care.
Working with the adoption and foster care process we were learning with each new child. The specialized medical care, legal paperwork and the processing was often overwhelming as was the variety of needs each child required.
To make the necessary adjustments, we joined adoption support groups where we could share our concerns and learn from the experiences of other parents. These adoption support groups included parents that were going through what we were experiencing and understanding the emotional roller coaster of daily life. These parent support groups met once per month with informal gatherings as needed.
With such an international family we find ourselves much more aware of international events, international politics, national heroes from different countries and cultural activities happening throughout the calendar year. In our community we have a variety of international families. The interaction within the community is encouraged and nurtured with a very natural and supportive attitude of openness and caring.
There is a spiritual feeling of acceptance among the families in our neighborhood despite obvious differences and I have often felt that this is the type of spirit that is needed worldwide. Accepting the reality that people of different cultures can positively agree to disagree does not mean disrespect. It simply means we agree to disagree on specific topics and understand that it is impossible for different cultures with different mores and a different history to agree on all topics. We need to accept this reality without anger or misunderstanding.
People of different cultures can respect the history of another's race or religious beliefs without going to war or avenging the behaviors of grandparents, great grandparents or great, great grandparents.
The primary goal for future generations will be to hear the "angelic harmony" of adults in all cultures working with their children as one universe of humanity. The universe is "one song." The ability of all future cultures and religions to understand this reality will be the most beautiful of all melodies. Each generation gives the next generation all they have and all they know.
On the topic of "basic principles" nothing is original with each new generation. All cultures and races agree on the basic concepts of right and wrong, and all want the same things for their families and friends; good health, long life, love, caring and sharing. It is all learned from the previous generation. Thus, when we see adults fighting civil wars and religious wars, we know that the motivation to fight has been learned from the previous generation who learned it from their parents in yet a previous generation.
As every new generation of children is taught by the previous generation of adults, each family is teaching their children how to raise their family with specific attitudes and beliefs about each aspect of life's challenges. This includes the quality of each child's physical health, personal hygiene, diet, education, religion, social mores and basic principles of right and wrong. This also includes developing attitudes about accepting differences in others.
The teachers of children can only give what they know. What they know is what they have lived. Teachers know that the superficial changes from generation to generation (popular music, clothing styles, fads and entertainment,) the basic human principles of success, abundance and happiness never change. We demonstrate our knowledge of these principles by our actions at home, at school, at our place of worship and in our community.
The heartbeat of our lives is based on these time-honored principles which we all clearly understand and were taught when we were children. Continuing to teach these principles to future generations is the highest spiritual calling for the present generation.
My prayer for future generations begins with a high priority: more positive role models and dedicated mentors for every child who will encourage and demonstrate to children how to accept the difference in individuals of all ages as well as the differences in their race, religion and culture. My prayer ends with the highest priority: that each child of each future generation will know that God lives within each of them and is calling for "one universal intelligence"e; - "one song of thought."
There are beautiful angels sounding beautiful tunes in our lives. These angels are repeatedly sounding the call for a spiritual course of action for all who will listen.
The question is "Are we prepared each day to listen and are we excited each day to hear the beautiful songs of joy, hope and love by the angels in our individual lives?"