Emigration

Yesterday my parents emigrated to Portugal after nearly 9 months of living with them - we had kind of got use to having them around, and it is with mixed feelings we said goodbye.

Relationships with parents is a strange thing and influences so many of our other relationships. I am lucky i have a very good relationship with mine (even after 9 months!) but still there are times when they manage to bring out the 16 year old in me - stomping off to my room and slamming my door. But they are also the ones that no matter what i did would still be there for me and there is a real security in that and it is not until you are faced with others families and their relationships - sometimes more dysfunctional sometimes more healthy than yours that maybe you see what a strong influencing relationship that is.

When i was at college Christians all around me where talking about the influence parents (particularly fathers - a i went to a very patriarchal church then and God surely could only be male) had on your relationship with God, and though some of it i now think is sentimental rubbish i see there is a truth in it as well. If parents influence the type of relationships we form on earth they must influence the type of spiritual relationships we form and how we respond to the spiritual world.