There was once a family, two parents and three children. The oldest child said to his family, "I want to begin my adult life, with family, home, and a career I love." Then the second child said to his family, "I am an adult now, and I want to start my family, buy a home, and begin to search and choose my career." Finally, the third child said to her family, "I, too, am an adult. I have chosen my career, and I am ready to begin my family."
So the parents said, "Go, with God's blessing and our's, for that is what each of us must do when the time of adulthood arrives." So the oldest child packed his bags and left for distant lands. There, he formed his family and found great success in his career. Likewise, the second child packed his bags, and though the lands he settled were not so distant, the career path was full and his family, like his elder brother's, began to grow. Finally, the the third child packed her bags, found favor with a fine young man, and with her career blossoming began to build her family.
And the parents said, "Our lives have been fruitful. Our children are strong, and healthy, becoming independent, and bound to increase the size of our family and, with that, our opportunities to spread the love we feel to many, to their spouses and their children, not to mention extended family members."
After some time had gone by, the children found their lives filled with activities and obligations that overflowed the vase of time available. When one of them would hunger for love, he or she would find it within the narrow lands now occupied by his or her small family and circle of friends. What need to look beyond this immediate place for love? Each personal vessel was adequately filled with love in his or her own home and local community.
Then an invitation arrived. Parents, some distance away now, not necessarily geographically, but psychologically, at the least, sought reunion. This family, growing in size, success, and independence, had grown in distance, too, and if each of the children did not notice it, certainly the parents did.
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