Nature vs Nurture

So which do you believe to be the stronger within you ... NATURE, i.e. your true nature, or NURTURE, i.e. how you have been raised and taught to behave? Let me tell you a story. It's a long story, it is still unfinished, but here it is in abridged form.

My dear sweet Mama was a very nurturing woman who believed in allowing her childrens' true nature to come forth, as long as it was within the limit of the law. We were allowed to follow our own paths and to become the people we were meant to be. Oh, she guided, pushed, and sometimes rubbed our noses in our messes, but never tried to make us something we weren't.

My two middle brothers pushed that to the limit, but this is not about them. This is about my daughter. The biggest surprise of my life.

My daughter was raised by people who were not her parents. She was adopted by them. That's another story for another time but, no, I did not give her away.

You cannot make a sheep out of a wolf. You can teach it not to bite the hand that feeds it, and put a coat of sheep's wool on it but, at some time, it will remember it is a wolf. When it grows skilled enough to care for itself, it will shed that false coat and be gone. Such was the situation with my girl.

Candice searched for her real family for years, trying to find the answers to who she is and why she was thrown away. We stumbled onto one another strictly by accident, through a mutual friend, and a wondrous friendship developed. That friendship soon turned into a mother-daughter relationship we both needed.

It took others to point out to us how much alike we are but, once we realized just how closely our stories matched, we took the steps to find the facts. She is my daughter; the child I was told was a stillborn delivery of twins.

The truth behind her "death" may never be known, but we've won anyway. I have reclaimed my Victoria/Tori, and she has finally found the family she searched for all those years.

My wolf cub has returned to the pack and she is flourishing.


Nature vs nurture? I have my answer.