With the sun shining warm and bright, puttering in my
tiny pot garden on the patio was not a task at all particularly when a tiny
cool breeze started 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!
50, 60, 75 or beyond ... it is that time in life when
everybody regards you derisively, condescendingly, patronizingly, sarcastically,
mockingly, irreverently......‘old’. It just means one thing to them --- old.
Allow me to say something.....
Never mind the aching bones, the weak joints, the
failing eyesight or hearing, the pills nestling permanently in one’s bag, and
the memory lapses. All that and more is just the natural physical journey of
the human body. We know and understand that. But there is something special in
being old.
It’s special.......
...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 eyes of God and thus understand that he goes through the same
struggles, burdens, misery or pain as everybody else. Then without further ado quickly
shoot off a prayer to the heavens creating a grace-filled path leading back to
that person. It’s special because you have understood well. For not many learn.
...To have better learned to act kindly and patiently towards
the young whose brazen and foolhardy behaviour 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.
For not many understand.
...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.
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. For not many try.
...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.
For not many will.
...To have better learned to separate the wheat from
the chaff, to recognize those of true value amidst those 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 where truth could have been the better choice. For not many do.
...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. For not many learn and learn well.
So there.....Old is special because old made good its time
to learn and learn well. Although God isn’t finished yet but with the way it looks
now the work is closer to done. And that’s a very good thing if heavenly perfection
is the goal.
So then here’s for a ‘Happy Birthday’ to anyone 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 learned.
