"...to seek and to find the past, a lineage, a history, a family built on a flesh and bone foundation."

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Wisdom Wednesday: Alice Fitzpatrick Ward

First a Disclaimer: I love everything about Wordless Wednesdays! I love the photos, the quiet, and the opportunity to contemplate what I'm looking at.

I suggested Wisdom Wednesday as a theme to Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers for those days when we feel like writing. Wisdom Wednesday postings will give us the opportunity to share sayings, words of wisdom, superstitions, advice, and things of that nature which have been passed down to us generation to generation. The only requirement is that the wisdom must be familial, something passed down to us from our family members, so I suppose we could entitle it 'Wisdom Wednesday': The Wisdom of our Ancestors.


My Wisdom Wednesday entry is attributed to my great-grand-aunt Alice Ward, sister to my maternal great-grandfather Thomas Fitzpatrick, and grand-aunt to my mother Mary Geraghty. Occasionally my mom uses the saying, so I asked her about its origin.

Aunt Alice died in 1952 at the age of 91, so I never had the opportunity to know her, but apparently Alice was not a great optimist. In the one photo I have of her on her memorial card she looks like a very happy person; however, anytime there was disappointment or upset over some matter she would say, "For every ounce of pleasure in life, there comes a pound of pain". This saying also has some variants, such as, "For every ounce of happiness in life, there comes a pound of sorrow." I have to admit that sometimes Alice is right, but I still prefer to find the silver lining in whatever clouds come my way.

7 comments:

  1. Wonderful idea for Wednesdays! Congrats!!

    I'll be contemplating this meme, I fail miserably at Wordless Wednesdays! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Carol, Me too, but maybe it's just that we like to put in our two cents worth. Cheery Be! Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, thanks for the idea. There are days when you just need to put a word in there. Your aunt sounds like many of her time. Guess that is why we spend so much time looking for the good.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks again for the inspiration for this new theme.

    Bill ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cool new theme! Like the Word of Wisdom, too. The longer you live, the more you realize that there are so many ups and downs in life.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So true Sherry, so true. Thanks for your comment. Cheers! Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  7. My mother did occasionally use this saying, but I never really took it to heart. She usually said it when not one, but a dozen, difficult things had happened. Thanks for the Wisdom Wednesday idea.

    ReplyDelete

Comments on this blog are always deeply appreciated; however, in the spirit of true collegiality, I ask that you do not write something you would not say to me in person. Because of spammers, CAPTCHA and comments moderation are in operation.

Any comments that include URLs not connected to the post topic, contain misinformation, or in any way resemble advertising, will be removed. Comments submitted by ‘Unknown’ or ‘Anonymous’ persons will not be published.

Cheers, Jennifer

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...