~upon the subject of growing older~

I have come to learn that there are a few things about growing older that I really don't mind at all.  Only a few mind you but I have come to appreciate them just the same. As I fast approach the arrival of my 59th year of life on the 26th day of this month,  I guess that I am reminded of them even more each day.

I can remember a crazy time back when I had just turned 50 and I was eating in a local fast food place with a friend back in Hutchinson.  The person taking my order, an early twenty-something girl who probably meant well, gave me my change back and said in a loud voice....

"With your SENIOR discount, you saved $1.57 today ma'am."

I had never been so mortified in my life.  For crying out loud I was only 50, not their customary age "55" kind of patron who would have qualified for that 10 percent discount on food purchases.  What in the heck was that kid thinking, giving me an old person's discount?  It was a while before I went back there again.  But you know what?  I finally reached age 55 and when I did, I figured out that it was "ok" to tell them I qualified for the offering of that special perk.  When I ultimately learned to put "vanity" away where it belonged, I soon learned that lots of places offer discounts to people of a certain age group and why not take advantage of it?  So I did and still do every chance I can get.  Hey  $1.29 here, $2.18 there.  It all adds up and as a wise person once said to me~

"It spends just as well in my pocket as in theirs."

Growing older has allowed me the opportunity to see many more places and meet just that many more people who have now become my family and friends.  There are so many good folks back in Kansas, a lifetime of them, who are my family, friends and former co-workers.  Last year when I moved here to the Western Slopes of Colorado, I made many more new friends who have become like a "second family" to me.  All of the many rich experiences that I've been given over the course of nearly 6 decades have taken me to places spread all across the United States and connected me with strangers who became my friends.  If we measure our true wealth in the number of friends and family that we have to call our own, then I must be surely quite well off.  For those I know, I am most grateful and beholden.  From the friends of my youth back home in the "land of long ago and far, far away", to those I now know as a nearly 60-year old adult, they matter in my life and I will never lose sight of that.  Ever.

Yet perhaps the greatest thing about growing older is the somber  realization of the brevity of life.  It sounds strange sometimes to say that but indeed it is most certainly true.  Life is short.  Time passes by us in the blink of the eye.  The older I get, the more I see it and the more I see it, the greater is this need inside of me to spend every minute as wisely as I can.  I have wasted a lot of time in my 21,537 days of life and believe me when I say it, none of that lost time shall ever be returned to me.  Long gone.  That's where those minutes and hours are now.

For me, this "aha moment" about life's brevity has brought about it a heightened awareness of things around me that years ago I might well have disregarded altogether.  Much of that greater acknowledgement of things has been captured in the pictures that I often find myself taking.  For instance, the ones shown below are good examples.

I drive right by this spot every single day of the week, Monday through Friday, on my way to and from school at Olathe.  Every day.  Without fail.  It's a view looking back towards the of  Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  There are clouds in the sky all the time.  Cumulus, stratus, nimbus.  Nothing new out here or any place else in the world.  But for some reason as I was heading towards home in Montrose last week about 5 in the afternoon, I gazed towards the east and saw this view and I just had to pull over and take a photo of it.  In my eyes, it was a spectacular thing to see and to preserve in a digital image.  So I pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and took the photo and even though I was tired and needed to get home, I sat there for a few minutes more and just looked at it.  I may never see the clouds like that again over the Black Canyon but for a brief bit of time last week, they were mine to enjoy and to make a memory in my heart.  Only an hour later, I found another sight to take a picture of, as shown below.

I drive right by this spot as I go to WalMart , each and every time.  It's at a four-way stop sign and usually I always just make the turn to the west and head on down Niagra Street in Montrose.  But last week as I came upon the stop sign, those beautiful trees in the picture caught my eye and even though I really needed to get to the store and back home again, I found myself just going straight on to the south and pulling over to the side of the street to take the picture shown above.  The clouds and the sun were just right and the quietness of the street is shown in the photo.  Just like after taking the photo on the way home from school, I found myself sitting there and looking at the gorgeous autumn colors of the leaves as they had changed.  Last year I had seen this very spot but had never taken the time to pull the car over and take the picture.  This year I am another 365 days older and have grown even more aware of how quickly the Colorado wind and cold temperatures will take those leaves away.  This year I was taking that picture, no matter what for even the life of a leaf is brief in nature.  For all living things, that reality is sure to come to pass.

For some reason, it seemed right and good to take the photo shown below as the sun set into the west last Friday evening here along the Uncompahgre Range near Montrose.

I thought of my Grandmother Brown, a dear and sweet woman who lived to the winter of her 106th year.  When I was a little girl, I can remember seeing the sun peeking through the clouds like this and asking her in my little tiny and innocent voice~

"Grandma, is that where Heaven is?  Is that what it looks like?"
And she told me that she thought it was just like that, with streets paved in gold.  My grandmother made it there before me, so now she knows for sure.  Once when I was much older, we visited about it again.  We made a pact, my grandmother and I, and the agreement was that whoever got there first would be sure to watch for the other one to come along.  I believed it then.  I still believe it now.

I am fortunate to be able to spend every Monday through Friday with a classroom full of 6 and 7-year olds who keep their "old teacher" quite busy.  Those 22 little people keep me young both in spirit and heart.  I look at them and pray that their lives will be blessed with all kinds of goodness.  I want them to grow up, strong in body and spirit.  And in as much as I always find myself asking them the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?",  I am forever reminding them to enjoy just being kids for as long as they can.

And the little 7-year old that used to be me says, "AMEN".