DNA influences...

I had often wondered how our DNA influences our career choices and our life choices. Recently, I was able to personally research some unexpected information gained by a couple of those highly promoted DNA testing promotions. It has been an interesting journey as I discovered long forgotten or lost relatives. I think finding out that my personal choices in choosing a more simplistic way of life, so different from the rest of my family, was very satisfying. I learned that many of my ancestors were hard working immigrants that lived short lives filled with labor intensive jobs that exposed them to the hazards of mining, cattle, and farming to name a few. Some of them were here even earlier, living from the land and depending on nature to guide them. I have found that, like both groups, I like to get dirty, work hard, and read the signs the earth provides. I'm not really interested in getting rich, as much as I am desiring to be content with the basics and to be debt free. Now that my children are all adults, I find great joy in spending time watching them forge their own paths. Spending time with the grandchildren and the grand "fluffs" (those beautiful living creatures they've chosen to care for) gives me a sense of wonder as I observe my adult children putting into practice those things I thought they may have missed or I may have failed to teach them. It is very rewarding to know that they are strong, intelligent, independent, survivors like their ancestors before them and they will be just fine when my time comes. "Nature versus nurture", I really can't say for sure which has influenced us all the most. But I will say that if you say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, then I can see generations of ancestors in the eyes of those that followed after me.  To know that I am the result of those ancestors is truly amazing because without just one of them, I would not be who I am.