climate change

May has a lot of  remembrance months to celebrate. One we enjoy is Date your Mate month. Instead of Friday night date nights, we enjoy Monday morning breakfasts. It seems like

many other older people do too as we see a lot of them having breakfast in the same places we go. The restaurants also seem to think we all want to listen to 50’s and 60’s music. Well we do, but still—This month as we were heading home past the senior center, we saw a sign reminding us that May is “Older Americans Month. We had to chuckle. We are older but don’t feel like we have hit the elderly button yet. Most of the time we don’t notice special treatment except for people rushing to open doors, “take your time sweetheart!”

When I was young I always planned to do my Genealogy when I got old well—

I shouldn’t have waited so long because it is actually turning out to be fun! Although now it’s a lot easier because technology has advanced so much. The other day I got a notice on my computer that there was information about an ancestor of mine and I went to see what was happening. My father’s older brother’s grand daughter had added a story.

“The Gardner name stems from the Gordon Clan of Scotland who had the Great Duke of Gordon for its head. I found this from reading about Blane Gardner's grandfathers here on Family Search. My Mother, Ivy Rebecca Gardner, would tell me her Father, Blane Gardner, told her their last name of Gardner came about as a result of their family being Gardeners for kings! I've always thought that amazing! “

I think this is exciting, because we have all felt the call to plant something, wherever we live. Even my black thumbed daughter finally has a place she can dig in the dirt.  My mom always told us that every garden will add oxygen to the air around us and help the CO2 / O2 ratio. So, do your little part to fight climate change. Plant a tree or a pot of tomatoes. Recycle, and get a recyclable bag or two for the grocery store. And,     celebrate with an older American!

Stand and Stare

Alas it is nearly the end of April and I have neglected writing my thoughts to you.

My excuse, weak as it was, I had foot surgery the first of the month and haven’t felt much like doing anything but reading and whining.

April is an interesting month for me first, because my mother’s birthday was last Sunday. She would have been 104 years old, though in the end she wasn’t interested in being that. She was my biggest mentor. I remember that she had a book on the table where she could always reach it—a poem a day. I don’t know if it’s the same one my daughter now has or if it is with my sister.

The second is, April is National Poetry Month. National Poetry Month, a celebration of poetry which takes place each April, was introduced in 1996 and is organized by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.

And I almost missed it. My daughter sent me one of the poems for a day this last week.

LEISURE

What is this life’ if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass

No time to see, in broad daylight

Streams full stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began

A poor life this, if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H. Davies

It reminded her of me she said! Do you supposed that I sit and stare mindlessly sometimes?

Or is she remembering lying side by side in the grass watching cloud pictures forming in the sky, or walking in the evening to watch the sunset? Do you remember doing things like that as a child or with your children? Go spend some time this spring enjoying nature. Stand and stare. Or try writing or reading a poem.

One of my favorites I wrote in May 2005

Snowman

There’s a snowman out my window

And I wish he’d go away

I think it’s just disgusting

 That he’s still here in May

On a Bad Day

On a Bad Day

Seven hundred thousand mornings

Nineteen hundred eighteen years

Twenty seven and one half lifetimes

Roughly nineteen million fears

Overcome the World

Overcome the World

I knelt in the temple 

Praying

Please God

No more hard things

Please, not yet.

I’m not ready again yet

I’ve had enough experience

I murmured pleadingly.

I was determined to have my way.

In that quiet

Holy place

Filled with pensive pondering

I felt peace overcome my spirit

Joy flickered around the corners 

Of my pain.

Thy will be done,

I whispered

I accept

“Rejoice my child

I won’t ask this of you”--

This time

Empathy

I

In all our contacts, it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond—Eleanor Roosevelt—

It took me a few minutes to convince my husband that this is true. I wonder who he is bonding to? and  why?

But think about it for a moment. We love and serve our husband and children, daily, many of us for their whole lives. Doesn’t it make sense that our feelings toward them are strong? As they get older and need more help from us, don’t our feelings for our aging parents grow stronger and more tender?  As I get older and have health issues, I ask my husband for more care, and I feel his love growing deeper and stronger.

The same goes for our neighbors. Thursday, my husband took the trash to the curb and left town. It was my job to bring the containers back Friday morning. What a sight! A bent old lady on a walker trying to pull the empty containers back up the road to the house. One neighbor drove by in his truck, smiled, and waved. The other ran across the cul-de-sac, grabbed both trolleys and sprinted into the garage. Who do you think I have the greater bond with!

What the world needs now (to borrow from a favorite song) is a little empathy.

Look at people fleeing their homes to protect their families be it from floods, fires, or political systems. Can you feel what they might be feeling as you think of your friends and families?

What can you do? How can you feel empathy?

1.    Empathy requires understanding their situation. The first neighbor is younger and new to the neighborhood.

2.     Imagine how you would feel if in the same situation. What would you wish someone would do for you?

3.    Respond—How do we respond? We don’t necessarily need to fix the problem. Sometimes just the knowledge that we care can lift and strengthen the person by showing that we care. They are not alone.

Some days I sit alone in my studio, feeling sorry for myself and wonder, what can I do to lighten someone’s burden? How can I show the love I feel for my fellow men? Check out JustServe.com. There are many options around town, wherever you live. Be aware of needs in your neighborhoods and help. As for me, well chocolate chip cookies are always good!

Burrr!

 It has been so cold. What ever happened to Puxatony Phil and ‘it’s going to be a short winter this year’? I guess “they” have to cram the last cold days of winter into a shorter time making them more intense?

  I’m so cold that when I complained that my metal hips were hurting, my sister started calling me “Old Ironsides” 

This week in our Sunday school class our teacher has an option of asking, what makes you happy? I asked my husband and he said being content that we are living Christ’s teachings and doing good in the world.

So—What makes you happy?

Happiness can be tricky. It is hard to define and harder to achieve. Mary Pipher says “Neither genetics nor our external circumstances determine our happiness. Rather happiness depends on how we deal with what we are given. We develop the skills of building joy, gratitude, and meaning into every day. By learning these lessons, we cultivate emotional resilience. We have the capacity to build happiness into our lives with humor concern for others, and gratitude.

I think-- I love to create. After all we are God’s, The Great Creator’s children. We are born in His  image. We all have something we like to create, be it a new dish for our families; a smile on our children’s faces; a beautiful garden; or as another friend, a nurse, told me, working to restore good health to one of her patients.

One day, after reading my cousin’s unhappy post on Facebook, I texted my daughter, that something was wrong with me. I was generally happy in a world filled with woe.

I learned today that I am in my second adulthood. I think I’ve heard about people being in their second childhood and it didn’t seem to be a compliment. What do you suppose second adulthood means? Maybe it just means finding a better compass for happiness.

Reading the NY times last week, I learned that “Women of the age 65 to 79 are the happiest demographic in America. Look at all the older women who are running for office and heading up corporations.

 I’ve just started a new book by Mary Pipher called WOMEN ROWING NORTH Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age. So far, it’s an interesting read.

It begins with “I turned seventy this year. Women in their sixties and early seventies are crossing a border and everything interesting happens at borders.”

As spring, and a new month approach think about what makes you happy and enjoy spending some time doing that thing. And then think about what makes your neighbor, your family, your Savior, happy. Spend some quality time with them too. 

.

Come

Come

The old cowboy said

Come to the well

Come drink 

The living water.

Life today

Can parch our spirit

The deep well

The Holy temple

Brings us renewal

Nourishes our souls

Keeps us connected

Come to Gods well spring

Prime the pump

And drink deeply

Come.