Our lives are built on relationships.
Mother Earth and her children, people and their God, business partners, siblings, lovers, friends. Some relationships are close, others distant. Of all relationships, perhaps the most complicated and imprinting is the one between child and parent.
This year, we asked 29 children between the ages of 17 and 102 to share a lesson they learned from their parents. They come from wildly different life stations and backgrounds and they all shared one thing in common – they still saw themselves as the child of their parents.
It’s been said that an apple does not fall far from the tree. In truth, apple seeds do not grow “true to type.” They require pollen from another apple in order to produce fruit, so that a seed planted from one apple may grow into a tree with an entirely different appearance and flavor. This to me is the ultimate lesson of this year’s Jewels. Like the apple, we are given the gift to grow, evolve, nurture and be nurtured – as parents and as children – and be uniquely who we are.
I hope you find the lessons meaningful.
Craig Taubman is creator of Jewels of Elul and founder of the Pico Union Project. www.craignco.com
