Hello! I hope everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend, and a good first week of September. This week, our topic is “Prosperity”.

Thinking about this word, I think of two ancestors who came to North America.  The first is Thomas Barber, whom I wrote about last week. He came from Bedfordshire, England, as a young carpenter apprentice. I don’t know if his thoughts were only to have a better life for himself, or if he was a visionary thinking about having a successful family lineage. I feel he’d be amazed at how Barber descendants have been successful farmers and business owners. We’ve gone to college and participated in our communities. We still have those family members who can craft wood, just as he and his sons did back in the 1600’s.

I think of the other side of my family. My great-grandfather Pelz came to Canada with his two brothers around 1900.  They were seeking land through the Dominion Lands grants. There is a legend they came in a small boat from Poland, but I have nothing to back that story up! They ended up in a small town in Alberta. It was not an easy life; one brother froze to death in the Alberta mines. By 1920, my great grandpa had relocated the family to western New York. He died in 1943 at age 68 from injuries when the truck he was riding in overturned. I don’t know if he would have imagined the opportunities for the family, just as with my Barber ancestor.

What does prosperity mean to me? I have a morning practice of going through a list of gratitude’s. To name a few,  a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, clothes to wear, food to eat, and I get to do genealogy! (These are not all of them either) I also know, and it may sound cliché, I am most prosperous with the family, friends, and framily that I have.

Have a great week – enjoy these last days of summer! Next week, our topic is Adversity.