12th January 2018
For my blog I write about the quote photos I have added in the past. At the end of 2016 I began to write poems for each quote.
The above photo was added to my Facebook Page in November 2010 and is of my oldest granddaughter and my ex-husbands daughter, although only a few weeks difference in age, descendant-wise they are in different generations. Time seems to have an distorting context through life; it doesn’t seem that long ago that these two year old little girls were happily playing on my piano – when I made up this quote they were twelve year olds – now they are adult women in their twenties – and to me each moment seems like yesterday.
There are two poems (written yesterday!) for this quote, as when I wrote the first it didn’t seem to be coming out the right way, so I decided to turn the page over and start again. After completing the second I went back and finished the first, but couldn’t decide which I preferred, so I am adding both.
My thoughts on this quote (and what I am trying to convey in the poems) are that we obviously want our children to be good and always want our children to be happy, regardless of age, and doing things to make them happy will have a good effect on them. But, no matter what we do to MAKE them happy, pales in comparison to what they can learn from us, if we follow our hearts to live a life of Being happy regardless of outer circumstances.
The Best Way To
Make Children Good
Is To Make Them Happy
Quote Title: Oscar Wilde
Poem: Trina Graves
Making children do anything
Will not achieve your true goal
They are unique human beings
With their own guiding Soul
They will submit to all your rules
As you teach, shape and mold
Bending to your whims
Mostly doing as they are told
But deep within they know
They have a true guiding light
Smothered by fitting in
It flickers, waiting out of sight
So how do you let them learn
To follow their own true heart?
While still guiding and protecting
Right from the very start
It is really all up to you
In the way you live each day
For even in the nurturing womb
They know what you do and say
Do you follow your own heart
Always aiming for your best?
Through life’s ups and downs
Anchored with love, do you rest?
The things you say and do
Will of course have an effect
But much more is said than words
With thoughts and feelings you select
Young children absorb it all
With no ability to understand
Not all experiences are true
You have the upper hand
Teach them by example
Follow your own inner guide
Be who you came here to be
Shine brightly, do not hide
For everyone has their own path
In the life they came to live
Unique in its twists and turns
Guidance by example you can give
Stand strong in your beliefs
Hold fast in your integrity
Show your love and appreciation
Giving thanks for all to see
Trina Graves
This picture was taken in 1990 and is of my three children with their cousins. It captures one of my happiest memories of their childhood, we (including both sets of parents) were just all out for an afternoon walk, the children were having such fun simply playing together in nature. I think it’s a happy memory for all of them.
Make Them Happy
Poem: Trina Graves
We want our children to be good
Do as told, and as they should
We give rules and we instil
Our beliefs, their minds we fill
With all the ways that we know how
To live as best, in these times now
From the moment of their birth
And for all their days on Earth
Our one hope above the rest
Through all joys and times of test
Is that they will be happy every day
No matter what will come their way
We all wish them lives of love
Some wish alignment with above
We all want them to be healthy
Some wish them to be wealthy
But all these are not true worth
Without happiness and mirth
Making them happy seems the way
To please them each and every day
Giving all we can to their joy
Buying each a brand new toy
Not having much time to spend
On making a living we do depend
The cycle of life continues on
Before too long the child is gone
Now an adult the world will see
But your child they’ll always be
Still you long for joy and happiness
Their life to be full of purest bliss
However, you know life will impart
Many arrows deep into their heart
Each one’s shadow will hit you too
Because they are a part of you
You give your love and support
Wishing more you could have taught
If I knew then, what I know now
So different I’d be, I would allow
My Inner Guidance to show the way
To all I think, and do, and say
My children I know I guide
By my ‘Being,’ I cannot hide
Back then, I know I did my best
So I can lay my past to rest
Now time moves on, flashes by
I have more to give, I can but try
Showing other generations a way
My words of truth I yearn to display
We cannot make them be
Open your mind and you’ll see
Everything we are, they will take
And with that, they will make
Our attitude and feeling core
Will open their life path door
Children are the greatest treasures
Our lives continuing measures
Of all we are and will achieve
Growing on from what we believe
How we live, what we are
What guides us, near and far
Our hopes, our loves, our goal
How much we follow our Soul
The greatest gift we can give
To our children is to live
Always guided by our Light
Our Inner Knowing shining bright
Giving it strength by positive thought
It is by example children are taught
Be their map for a life of joy
For every precious girl and boy
Trina Graves
Both of these pictures are of my three children having fun playing together, taken in the 80’s.
