Tuesday January 10 2017  “NEVER SAY NEVER”

My friend Marilyn writes a column for a newspaper.  She sends it to me each week and this week I was flabbergasted at what I read.  The day before she sent it I had already decided to write a short blog about the very topic of her newspaper column.  If that wasn’t enough, even some of the sentences she used had flittered through my mind as I was contemplating what I would write.

Marilyn recently had reminisced about a time when she was younger and walked past a couple of elderly ladies walking slowly down the sidewalk.  As she viewed these elderly ladies she promised herself that she would NEVER look like they did.  Well, guess what, almost three quarters of a century later she realizes she has arrived.  Marilyn is 85 years old and one would supposedly say that she is in the ballpark of “old age”. 

The day before I received Marilyn’s column, the exact same thought skittered through my mind about what I had said to myself when I was younger.  When I was a young mother I picked up a passenger each day to ride with me to work.  Day after day I remember seeing the loose abundant skin jiggling under her arms and thinking to myself, “I will never let that happen to me”.  Well guess what, I’m about the age of my former passenger AND MY ARMS HAVE ALREADY BEEN JIGGLING FOR A FEW YEARS.

Both Marilyn’s mom and my mom said the same thing years ago to their young inexperienced daughters, “NEVER SAY NEVER!  It just may come and bite you back”.  Our mothers were right; at least when referencing the old.  I’ve said many “nevers” and just as many have bit me back.

Recently Marilyn’s great granddaughter pointed out to Marilyn, “You know all old people look just alike”.  Oh, how astute are the young!  Many old people do have a tendency to look alike.  However, I find it interesting that when I am with the older generation that I knew when I was kid, or as a young adult, they always appear to me to look as they did in their hey-day.  Those I am not acquainted with are more easily grouped into the “look alike” group.  Not only do we tend to look alike, but we also become anonymous to the younger generation.  They just simply look past us and choose to not see us.  I noticed this years ago, even before my wrinkles, whenever I went someplace with my beautiful young daughter.  I spied the ogling eyes of dirty old men undressing her as she passed by.  They never even gave me a courtesy glance.  And so the baton was passed.  I had a few choice comments to say under my breath as I passed by these dirty old men, which always caught them off guard, creating an embarrassing flush of red to spread up their necks.  I did receive some satisfaction from that. 

And now I am old; one of the “white hairs”, nondescript, out to pasture, an over the hill has-been!  And oh, it is so wonderful!  I love who I have become as I have aged.  I know I have been more fortunate than many others by marrying well.  And by that I mean marrying someone who truly loves me, has treated me with the greatest of respect our entire 43 years, treats me like a queen, and allows me to love him back in the same way.  I also know who I am in the family of God, and I have a Heavenly Father that loves me more than I can comprehend.  How is that for a great family! 

Our children are grown, are grandchildren will someday be grown, and we’ll be gone from this earth.  I will say that I have no regrets in aging or knowing that my remaining time on earth is in its winter season.  In that too I have been extremely blessed.  Not everyone has had the honor of living the years I’ve lived and many young people alive today will not attain the years I have had.  I am so thankful for each year I have lived, each moment I am living, and for all the hours, days, months, or years I may have ahead. I look ahead with joy and anticipation in spite of the fact that I have flabby arms, white hair, failing vision, and a body that is slowly showing signs of the old age stoop.  I hope to enter into the Kingdom of God with a graceful exit from this stunning world.  I hope I will leave a legacy of love, and a remembrance of beautiful memories for those left behind in my wake. 

Yes, I may experience aches and pains into the future but I hope to enjoy the journey until God’s numbered days for me are spent.  Then I will be rejoicing with my Lord.  Until then I choose to be joyful, living life to the fullest and enjoying each moment I have.

Thank you Marilyn for graciously allowing me to quote you, use your story and add my own thoughts as well.  You helped make my blog better than it would have been.

 

NEVER SAY NEVER

Kathleen Martens

January 10, 2017

http://www.visionsofpoetry.com

 

Old age has a way

Of sneaking up.

Like an uninvited guest

Sitting down to sup.

 

Slowly, ever so slowly

The face I see

Changes imperceptibly

And becomes a different me.

 

Every day when I look

At my mirrored face

I look exactly the same

As in yesterday’s race.

 

Why is it then

Those portraits don’t lie

And they show the passing time

Those days belie?

 

All of a sudden

I just look old,

As if my younger body

Was just simply sold.

 

My hair is white,

My skin is wrinkled,

And I must be careful

To not inadvertently tinkle.

 

I bounce around

On the gym floor

And the jiggling skin

Seems to daily be more.

 

And it seems memory’s pockets

Become deeper and deeper.

New facts unimportant

To bag as keepers.

 

My specs ever present,

Thankfully my teeth are too,

And my bunions keep growing

And calluses are new.

 

Crooked hands all bent

And pain seems to linger

And it always appears

I’m giving “the finger”.

 

But my smile is present

And my love unending,

Though now one of “the anonymous”,

My love I’ll keep sending.

 

So when you pass me by

And I smile at you,

NEVER SAY NEVER, because…

You’ll wear the same shoes.

 

Thank You God for the years I have lived.

Thank You too for all the enjoyment of Your beautiful creation that I have been able to experience.

Thank You Lord for loving me.

Exodus 20:12 

“Honor (respect, obey, care for) your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged in the land the Lord your God gives you.

Proverbs 16:31

GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS YOU!  MAY YOUR DAYS BE DAYS OF WONDER AND ENJOYMENT!

P.S.  I want you to know that even after knowing Dave over 44 years when he walks into a room I still see the face of the man I walked down the aisle to.  He hasn’t changed a bit!