A few days ago, as I sat quietly and alone in my home, after getting one notice after another about this friend or that in a predicament…being asked to help here and then there, only to get “here” canceled, and end up there…it almost became confusing. It felt like there was a tornado outside my door. I was just glad it was not me needing help but instead able to give it.
So that takes me to this place… sitting on the mountain top in Paupack, looking down and out over the mountain and Lake Wallenpaupack in the distance, watching the fog envelop the lake that I can’t help but acknowledge that life can be both beautiful and a challenge at the same time.
This is what aging is about. Oh I know, as our bodies give up on us, we work to keep our sense of humor and laugh at what time and gravity has bestowed upon us, but we also have the time to sit and enjoy the moments that when we were young we were too busy and exhausted to enjoy. We have to remind the young people in our life how important it is to stop and smell the roses, as they say. Funny how many times I have heard those words and yet this morning in the middle of the dance of the fog, I get the importance of it all.
To be reminded of this at a time when our bodies are being tested and our strengths begin to fade is important. As I walk with my friend through her immediate challenge, I recognize in my own self the changes that come with aging.
The other day, while meeting someone for the first time, I found myself in conversation, wanting to make a point, but first describing the scene, only to forget the point I wanted to make in the first place. Like a brain fart…all you can do is acknowledge the moment, laugh and move on.
They are beginning to show up now and then and all I can do is laugh at it. Like the time I had a doctor appointment, but ended up at the wrong doctors office.
After a day of taking Audrey to a doctor appointment (that lasted 4 hours…that is another story) followed by a hospital visit, we headed out to the car, got in and strapped her up in the front seat, put my purse in the back seat then saw the white gloves on the back seat and thought, “these are not mine.” In fact, the car was not mine. I had just placed my friend in a car that did not belong to me. Laughing to the point of almost peeing my pants, I backtracked my steps and laughing said, “God I hope there is not murder in the future of this car because our fingerprints will be all over it!” We laughed a number of times thinking of the scenarios of what could have happened if the owner had come out to their car while she was strapped in and ready to go!
Then we remembered a mutual friend we knew who shared the story about a time when they left a show they just attended and walking to their car, could not find the keys to their car. Thinking that they left a spare set in the glove compartment, and wanting to move on and out as quick as possible, they decided to break the back window, get in, grab the keys and take off, ready and willing to repair the window later. Grabbing a rock, they broke the back window, everyone got into the car, but when searching the glove compartment for the spare keys, realized this was not their car.
Yes, this can happen to people of all ages. Especially in the world we live in today where it is hard to tell one car from another, but when you enter the “aged” it feels more like a jolt than a funny mistake. Memories that fade, frustrate. Appointments missed can cost. You may laugh out loud and try and blow it off, but it gives you food for thought and makes you rethink your organization skills.
So until the next time, I’ll sit here, watch the morning fog circle the lake down below and enjoy the show that nature is giving me this morning.
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