Love Flows Downhill...Life Lessons from Lucy-Kate

[Missy relaxing in Celebration, FL.]

     Okay...it's back to Louisiana and back to school time.  For over two weeks, I spent my in-between semester break back home in Orlando working at THE theme park, seeing my daughter who is rarely in the country, and staying with dear friends.  Yes, it was hot and humid in Florida; it thunder stormed every afternoon; the traffic on I-4 was a beast, but it was great to be "home."  Being in Orlando meant staying with my dear friends Tedd and Lucy-Kate Walton and getting treated to sumptuous meals, constant laughter, lots of family, and a treasure-trove of life lessons.

    When the professor gets to be the student, it is a humbling experience...and one I've desperately needed.  Perhaps you, like me, have struggled with trying to figure out how to relate to your adult child.  Why doesn't she call me once a week (once a day would be better!)?  Why are my emails not reciprocated immediately?  Why am I not my child's confidant?    What am I - chopped liver?!  Even though I've been an empty-nester for four years, I still hadn't figured out how to be one.  Staying at Chez Walton and being coached by the sagely patriarch and matriarch of the Walton clan, I  think I finally learned one of the most important lessons in how to connect with an adult child -- "Love flows downhill."

    Do you know this truth?  I consider myself an intelligent woman, and yet, this fact of life just didn't occur to me.  Lucy-Kate repeated, "love flows downhill, love flows downhill," and offered a myriad of examples to show me the wisdom in these three simply powerful words.  As I pondered the meaning, I finally saw the light.  

    While I love my parents, I love my child in a more intense manner.  Love flows downhill.  Conversely, while my child loves me, the flow of feelings doesn't "backwash," because love flows downhill.  I don't have grandchildren, but I have observed that often the love grandparents have for grandchildren flows downhill with even greater potency.  Ah-ha!  If I expect my child to have the same fervor of love that I have for her, it would be unnatural, and it would set up both of us for an unsatisfying relationship with one another. I get it!  Love flows downhill. I may desire to speak with my daughter every day and not miss a single moment in her life, and yet, it would be an unrealistic expectation.  Love flows downhill.

    Another key lesson from the lips of my friends and mentors is that box wine is divine!    Like connoisseurs of fine wine, we sampled several boxes and determined that box wine is delicious.  An added bonus of box wine is that, unlike bottled wine, when the wine is gone, the box collapses so that it doesn't look like we've over-imbibed when one peers into the recycle bin.  Box wine is divine!

     Not long ago, my friends redecorated their living room with a rather novel and practical concept; they got rid of sofas.  Now, they have  amazingly comfy stuffed swivel chairs with ottomans that can be rearranged all sorts of ways.  I love that everyone gets a place without crowding out anyone else, and it seats way more people than sofas.  Brilliant!  Don't have a sofa and have more room, more conversation, and more versatility.

    Lucy-Kate is a fantastic magician in the kitchen.  Whatever is harvested from their garden is whipped up into something wonderful.  The Walton's garden covers their back and front yards.  It  yields such a beautiful bounty that one almost wants to chuck it all, move to the country to grow food, to can, to preserve, and never to go to a grocery store again.  Just by sitting at the kitchen counter, I learned so many new recipes using fresh in-season ingredients. 

     And so, I'll close out for now saying a giant "thank you" to Tedd & Lucy-Kate Walton for teaching me:

1. Love flows downhill.
2. Box wine is divine!
3. Don't have a sofa.
4. Cook what's fresh and in season.

Many Blessings & Much Love,

Missy