Do you realize how much the world has changed the past 97 years? And that some people lived through it all? I really felt blessed today when a treasure chest of life experience was opened and shared with me.
I had this amazing experience this morning when I went to visit the second oldest person in our church- she is 97. The oldest person is a lady who reached 100 in February.
The lady I visited this morning, is still in good health. Yes, it is a bit difficult to move around, and she can’t see so good anymore. But her hearing is much better than mine! And her mind is still razorblade sharp.
She told me this morning how much her world has changed. When she was a little girl, their whole world on the farm changed when her father bought them a radio. Suddenly the realization came that there is a much bigger world out there. The news coming through the airwaves was astonishing to them as children.
An even more amazing experience was when her father bought the family their first car in the 1920’s- the sudden mobility it created for them. It took them quite a while to get electricity connected to their farm.
From then till now the world has changed radically. Her whole world, when she grew up, was the farm . Now some of her great-grandkids are growing up across the world in Australia. She was amazed at how it is possible on Skype to see and talk to the grandchildren, seeing the newborn baby in their arms. On the other side of the world.
The world became a bigger place with the buying of the radio, and again a much smaller place with Skype.
It is hard to think of a world without electricity and electronics. But that was the world she came into. And that was a happy world, where people had still time for one another. Where deep talks were held in front of the fireplace, they would never understand tweets and facebook communication in those days.
I had such a good time, visiting this special lady. I really have respect for somebody who are 97 years old, and still full of live, love, and humor. Such people really enriches my life.
Not all the old people I know are pleasant to visit. SOme became embittered by life’s experiences, and some just focuses on all they have lost in life along the way.
The wisdom I decided to keep out of this morning’s visit: I do have a choice about how I am going to grow older. I choose to be grateful for all blessings. I choose to find happiness in relationships and experiences, not things. And I really hope that when I am an old, old man (with an oil leaking old Harley out the back door of the old age home), that people will also feel they receive much more than that they came to give, when they visit me!
The Rider 