The view from where I stand

It's time to evaluate my life and my views. These tend to change without me even realizing it. Often. I try to ask myself a few questions when I realize that my old views just aren't sitting well anymore.

Some of these views I have changed my opinion on are religious tolerance, relationships and the dynamics of these, child rearing and political views. I won't go into too much much detail on my political views, but I will enlighten you on all the others.

As for religious tolerance, you can practice whatever you like, please don't try and jam it down my throat or judge me for mine. I have actually changed my religious views many times in the last decade and wonder if I may just change it again. I think this time may be the last because this time its actually spiritual not religion. I am trying to reach a higher spiritual level which isn't just a list of rules and regulations.

Relationships. This is a hot topic in my life lately. First they are what they are. You can't catagorize them. There are relationships based solely on sex. Some have drastic age differences or maturity levels. Others are different races or same gender. They are what we make of them, what we need them to be and only as long as we need them to be that way. I no longer believe in forever, just the time we need to learn from each the lessons to go onto the next level or until we no longer agree on the state of the relationship. If one person in said relationship is no longer able to live without compromising their core being for the sake of the other, maybe it is time to re-evaluate. Compromise is one thing, losing yourself for a relationship with someone is totally different.

My child rearing views have changed somewhat with both sets of my children. I say sets because I have 2 twenty-somethings and a middle- school and elementary-school age children. My views have never been politically correct. I believe in beating butts when needed. It is needed a lot in my house, more than I actually do it. Raising children with the internet is also a new frontier and I am still feeling my way through this. My youngest children have the influence of their older siblings, much more "stuff" and divorced parents. I am also a working mother who is in college full time with these children. These are all factors in parenting that I am learning to deal with. I think I am more lost parenting these two then I was the older two. I am seeing things in my children and their friends I wouldn't have dreamed of knowing or doing until I was in my teens. Maybe the other parents are having the same problems as I am and we are just all trying to feel our way through this.

My views change over the years so I am imagining I am maturing and not just getting older. I hope this means that I am growing as well. I think so and I kinda like the me I have become a little more every year.