This
morning....... I had an early call from a good friend and along with it a long
list of misery and unhappiness. Younger than me by a few years but old enough
to own a senior citizen card, she bemoans her life and everything that’s in it.
Except her children and grandchildren, but of course typically the doting
parent and grandmother that she is. . We each have our stories, our history.
She has hers. This time she’s feeling old and sad. Well, we chatted for a bit, until
she had to go back to her morning chores and I went back to mine.
.
She reminded
me of a neighbor and a post written a year ago. Here it is…….
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With the sun shining warm and bright, puttering in
my tiny pot garden on the patio was pleasurable made even more so when a tiny
cool breeze came blowing my way. I was in the middle of trimming dried-up
branches in one pot when a neighbor living just across the street strode down
casually to the side of the patio facing the street and happily extended an
invitation to her birthday party on Sunday which she’d rather call her
Thanksgiving Party. She further added that she’s so grateful to be 75 and
healthy. Indeed Amen to that! Bless her and do have many more!
50, 60, 75 or beyond ... admittedly it is that time
in life when everybody, both young and old alike regard you derisively,
condescendingly, patronizingly, sarcastically, mockingly,
irreverently......‘old’. It means just one thing to them --- old... and that to
them means shriveled, bland, boring, useless, ugly, and irritating to their
perceived landscape of life and living. Really some people can be both mean and
cruel sometimes. That is sad.
Allow me to say something.....
Well, I think they just do not understand. A good
friend once cheerfully said ….... 'It’s not how they look, it’s what they have made of
themselves. It's essence not form, mi amiga!'. .....So then never mind the aching bones, the weak joints, the
slowness, the failing eyesight or hearing, the pills nestling permanently in
one’s pocket-bag-drawer, and the embarrassing memory lapses. All that and more
is just the natural physical journey of the human body.
Rather it's
what or how a person has made of himself or created for himself from the
snippets of life presented to him that truly defines the person and his life.
There is something special in 'old'. Here's why…
It is special.......
1.............to have better learned to consider a
fellow being as an equal and loved by the same God. To see him not only through
human eyes but through the heart of God and thus understand the struggle,
burden, misery or pain behind those sad eyes. And then quickly shoot off a
prayer to the heavens above which in turn creates a grace-filled path leading
back to that person. It’s special because you have understood well.
2.............to have better learned to act kindly
and patiently towards the young whose brazen and foolhardy behavior often get
on your nerves. And instead seek to help, enlighten, uncover their potential,
unobtrusively train them into the way that they should go, as designed by a
good God. It’s special because you have learned to understand the young as they
should be understood. Been there-done that.
.
3.............to have better learned to accept life
with both the good and the bad in it, to have understood that both are requisites
for growth. That failing can be a stepping stone to greater success. It's okay
to make mistakes, too, but not over and over again. Perfection is not the goal;
excellence is. It’s special because you have learned to move in step with the
music of life’s universal dance and essentially to God’s design for your life.
.
4.............to have better learned to be friends
with the sun, moon, stars, trees, seas, rivers, oceans, and the animals of
land-sea-air, all the seasons and its changes and that you have a part in its
preservation and continuance. It is special because you have understood your
role as a steward of God’s work.
5.............to have better learned to separate
the wheat from the chaff, to recognize those of true value in the midst of those
things which only serve no good thing but waste. It is special because you have
gained the ability to peel off unnecessary layers or masks which hide truth.
Truth is and always will be the better choice.
6.............to have better learned that everything
in life passes through heaven’s doors. Joy, sorrow, misery, success, failure,
laughter, tears, and fear --- all can find its solution – hope – inspiration –
comfort and consolation when it is passed through faithful prayer. It’s special
because you have understood very well that nothing is or will be without GOD.
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If we can be masters at one, at least, then life's
journey would be a gem and truly worthwhile. For then we have served some
greater purpose. By God's design.
Old is a journey we all take. None exempted. Better
to create or recreate it to be the best years of our life yet. We can
still be so much more. Blessings from on high. Living it well is our gift back to God.
So then here’s for a ‘Happy Birthday’ to anyone and
everyone who may be celebrating a birthday today or in the days ahead before
the year ends. Don’t count the years in numbers but in how much and how well
you have lived and learned. That is by God's intent and design.
Blessings to you all! In Christ.
