I had the opportunity to see my 81-year-old aunt this past weekend, who is in a nursing home, and also to celebrate my dear cousin's daughter who is about to give birth to her first child. It made me start thinking about the life cycle, about how important it is to equally honor the end of life and the beginning of life.

My aunt suffers from dementia, which can sometimes make for a very interesting conversations, especially about people who have died that she still seems to have contact with. But we also always seem to have a few very insightful conversations about family history, of which she is now the keeper on my mom's side of the family since my mother passed away in 2012.

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"I had my day, actually, I've had plenty of days," she told me as we discussed how she no longer cared about outer beauty - hair, makeup, jewelry, clothing. But she recalled a time when she did feel beautiful, as evidenced by the amazing photographs of her that her daughters have posted on the wall in her room.

"She felt like she missed out on a lot in her life," she said of her mother, my grandmother who never had the opportunity to go to college, worked for very little money in the family furniture business, and spent the rest of her time caring for children and taking care of the house. We discussed the fact that there were simply not a lot of options for women in the early part of the 20th century.

We also talked about my great grandfather, and she said she felt like he was a man who was very disconnected from his children and grandchildren, that the roles were so well defined back then, that he was a farmer and his wife was the primary caregiver of the kids, and in a way, he felt left out. She urged me to go back and look at some photos of him.

"You can see it in his eyes," she said. "He was a sad man."

These little slivers of wisdom, these insights, these pearls from my family's past could only be gleaned by talking to my aunt.

Fast forward to the next day, Saturday, when my cousin, her husband, and their army of friends, celebrated her daughter's upcoming baby.

The house was decorated with fresh flowers, tiny candles, signs that read "love," and everything imaginable in pink. The waft of delicious homemade food lingered in the air, co-mingling with laughter and conversation around a sea of pretty packages adorned in shiny paper and puffy bows.

While most of the attendees were well past the stage of having children, we could still recall that excitement, the anticipation of it all. There was an electricity in the air as everyone in the room "oohed and ahhed" over the unwrapped packages, their contents proudly displayed and passed around- tiny flowered clothing, bibs with cute sayings on them, soft furry blankets, stuffed animals, tiny hats and socks, children's books and high-tech accessories that many of us didn't recognize.

Baby showers are actually an ancient ritual in other cultures, but are relatively new by modern American standards, originating in the 1950s. But their goal has always been uniform - to welcome a new life into the world.

So, as we consider our families, the people we love, the people who are in our circles, I think it's important to remember that every stage of life should be celebrated. Those celebrations may look different, depending on our backgrounds. But, they all have one thing in common, they are part of the life cycle - honoring people we love for who they have been, and others, for who they will be.

Amanda is the mom of two, a reporter for WRAL-TV and the author of several books, including some on motherhood. Find her here on Mondays.