Everybody's got a sack of rocks to carry!

It's a very interesting way of putting it, the baggage people, us....we carry through life. I took it directly from an interview with actress Elaine Stritch. She is discussing her views on religion being a lifelong catholic, addiction to alcohol and her thoughts on liking fellow human beings. I was particularly impressed with her disclosure of not liking people in general. Rather bold and fresh to hear someone actually admit her or his distrust of others.
I think that if I were as honest as she, I too have been at odds with most of my acquaintences in my lifetime. Meaning, I have reserved a tiny part of myself back from most of the people I have been involved with because of a trust issue. Early on in life, I've experience personal betrayal and this alone can make a person suspicious and callous about allowing anyone access to your heart. That sack of rocks we carry through life isn't what defines us, it just is what fate has given us whether we got a pebble because of carelessness or just being in the wrong place at the right time; it is our lot in life to tote it!
And tote it you will but how you move that sack along, in what manner determines your character. Do I moan and groan with each step or do I simply shoulder the weight without fanfare, making my way through the stages of life? We all enjoy some whining and conjoling feedback from a understanding soul but that just slows you down and you still have to grab that sack anyway! My cajun daddy, Levon Theodore Miller was the perfect example of someone shouldering his sack of rocks with dignity and great resolve. A very humble man, Levon made no excuses for his mistakes nor did he tout his successes. He called himself, "Just a simple man, with simple needs and strong belief that good eventually overcomes bad". For all he did, for all he was, I credit him with the hope for good that I guard in my heart. Squatting at his feet, watching him toil in the Louisiana dirt to make another spring garden, I quizzed his mind for answers. Never were my questions too silly or unimportant for him to answer or tell me honestly he didn't know for sure but this is "my thinking on your question, Queen". Levon had wonderful cajun stories from his past or the generations before him to demonstrate the character traits we wish to keep or stay away from. Honesty, trust, love, sharing, resilence, determination, hope, and belief in your common man when that belief has been trampled upon were taught to his children as he tended to the animals to feed his family, sharing housekeeping chores with my mom, washing our bodies pink in the deep claw footed bathtub at the end of a thirteen hour work day, and relaxing on the backporch every evening to watch the sunset. "Let's see what the Old Man has painted for us tonight", he'ld say.
Please let me learn to carry my sack of rocks like my cajun daddy did! He would often say, " Ma' Shara, Queen, life is so hard but it has so much beauty if you look for it...it is what it is....all you got"! thanks daddy, I'll keep looking!