Reflections on Tradition

Please note: If this is your first time visiting our blog, please click here to hear the premise of Pass It On, Baby! and how it all began.... Pass It On, Baby!

Hi Friends – I’m back from vacation at the Jersey Shore and excited to get back to work for Pass It On, Baby! Heather did an incredible job of handling everything that normally is shared between the two of us, and I appreciate it greatly. I spent my days being a mom, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a niece and a cousin. It was such a wonderful trip for my spirit. Cape May is probably my favorite place and every time I visit I leave recharged for the journey ahead.

I visit Cape May every year and have since I was a baby. Before I was born, my father did the same throughout his childhood. Now, in that same manner, I bring my own children. It is a place of tradition for our extended family. My cousins that have come since they were children, now bring their children as well…my little sister who I used to take up to the beach arcade, now takes my own children. It means more to me than I can express. I feel more myself there than any place in the world. The entire place feels timeless to me. It’s almost like I can still feel all the people who at one time visited Cape May with me and have since passed away, still there in that same exact spot. The same ocean that I whispered my thoughts and dreams to when I was a little girl, never changes, though I have changed so much. It’s my children’s turn to whisper their hopes…

With all these feelings swirling about in my head and heart, it’s no wonder I spent a lot of time reflecting on Pass It On, Baby! and where this is all headed, what this all means. I don’t have any more answers, but I did love some of the parallels that I came up with. When I sit and think about Cape May, it is not lost on me that two parts of the romanticism that surrounds this place is my family and the tradition. Family is there to support you through your endeavors, your hardships, your triumphs and your failures. Maybe a little like the community we are all building? Mothers helping mothers on hard times, offering a hand to help, a hug across the miles. I love the metaphor. A family of mothers…. Why do you help your cousins out, your aunts, uncles and brothers out? Because you should and because you care. Similar again, right? =)

Ok, yes - I love the family metaphor, but the big theme that I kept coming back to was tradition. Coming to Cape May as a child instilled in me that this trip, this time we spent was important. I don’t know as a child that I fully understood the fact that my parents were carrying on a tradition that was set forth for them and even their parents before them, but somehow this trip was interwoven in my being and its something that I.Just.Don’t.Miss – no matter what is going on. And the same is true with my brother, my sister, my aunts, and so on. As I pondered the meaning of tradition and why we follow them, how it influences, etc – I kept thinking about all the people who have sent boxes who have talked sharing the experience with their children. Children involved in boxing up their own clothing, helping tape the box, and some even taking the trek to the post office. (Bless you dear mothers who have attempted that! Lol!) I thought about my own kiddos boxing up their clothing to send and I realized that these are the singular moments that build upon themselves to form the basis of a tradition. Just like I can’t remember when the individual trips went from singular trips to a tradition that I just don’t break and is a part of who I am – involving children in the aspect of giving (not just through Pass It On, Baby, but all aspects of giving) enough times also takes it from some singular acts to a way in which they will live their lives. It becomes tradition in a sense.

So those are the kiddos on the giving end, but what about the kiddos on the receiving end? They are learning through tradition too. Where does tradition come from? We see it somewhere and are in some way involved in the act. These children that are receiving are learning about faith, love and kindness. Heather and I have talked several times about the kind acts that have been shown to us and how we have taken them and passed them on in a sense. These beautiful kiddos will too. Almost every letter we receive talks about the same theme too – “paying it forward”, “giving back”, “sharing blessings” and list goes on and on.

And the fact that each of us involved in this process pull from some good shown to us at some other part of our lives….tradition? Great…let’s keep it that way. I love seeing the world as a “family” of people involved in the “tradition” of helping other people out.

In love and kindness,

Email Elizabeth & Heather