Caregiving for my parents shaped me into who I am

I dedicated my "core" years to caring for my parents, and I don't regret one second of it. While most of my friends were finding true love, getting married, securing their career paths, investing and making money, I was caring for my ill, elderly parents. And trust me: I didn't do it for the money. My parents didn't have any. Not one cent. I did it because I loved them, and they needed me. First, my Dad, "Pompeii," or "Herbie P," who died in 1995, and then my Mom, Frances," who died in 2008.

I'm not saying it was easy caring for them, because it wasn't. I did sacrifice a lot. But what I sacrificed I made up for in gaining a ton of love and lovely and inspiring moments that I forever cherish and get to keep long after I leave this world - all worth more than any annuity or estate or financial inheritance could have ever paid off.

Into this mix, I became a better person in caring for my parents. I'm no angel now, nor was I ever, but in caring for my parents, I learned to be more compassionate and caring...more understanding...more of everything good. I learned more about love....of every kind.

Every good thing I say, think or do is based on something I learned from my Mom and Dad, directly or indirectly. And I never felt that God or the Universe or the Great, Good Superior Consciousness of All...or however anyone wants to term it...I never felt that I, my life or my goals, would be abandoned if I cared for my parents during those "core" years...because I didn't abandon my parents.

"Honor thy mother and father" does not just mean to honor our parents when they are alive. It means to honor the lives that God, the Universe, etc. gave us THROUGH our parents. And I believe I am doing that. And in the process of doing that, and caring for my parents in the past, I've shaped a life that inspires me, and maybe a few others, every day...a good life that every so often seeps into my work...be it a book...a script...a essay...or even a live event...or a party.

All of that, and so much more, is sprinkled with just a little bit more light and love...because of the light and love that shined upon me in caring for my beautiful parents.

Bless you always, "St. Frances" and "St. Pompeii." I know you're both watching over me now from Heaven, in a far superior way to how I watched over you both on Earth...and we're all the stronger and more loved - and more evolved, in countless, graceful, amazing ways that cannot possibly ever be measured.