My friend Hugh experienced a personal loss today. He shared in his LiveJournal a deeply personal eulogy of this woman from his childhood that permitted those of us who read it to see this lovely soul through his eyes.
His words were awkward in many ways, but to those who know the man, they were heartfelt. His words dripped with a sorrow that was slowly saturating his being. Yet though it all he allowed me to see this woman I had never met. It is amazing how one can reach so deeply into their soul and capture a sliver of the essensce of one they love in their passing.
Take time to listen to the elderly.
Sometimes our fast paced youthful lives won't allow us much time, work calls, the children are ill, and many other obstacles in life that demand immediate attention will call us away. Put aside your shopping though. There will be time to buy that DVD later. Those shoes on sale will be buried on the bottom of your closet by this time next year. The big game will be replayed for weeks coming on ESPN Classic. There may not be another opportunity to share more time with the elderly in our lives.
I'll even make time for the random elderly person. Listen to their stories of times long past. The struggles of their generation, their own personal demons. Sometimes they want to share their stories for they have no others to share their story with.
I've grown to take pride when I am selected to hear such a story. A person, their time fading, choosing to spend time talking to me. What is there in the world more valuable for us to give each other than our time? We can never earn more time. It is given to us and it is finite. We can only truly choose to spend it more rapidly than nature intended. I accept the gift of time, and I give freely of my own in return. I'll gaze through the open window of times and trials long past.
Someday, should I defy the odds and outlive all whom I love, I hope to find someone as willing to accept the gift of my time, and to give of their own in return that our souls might touch and both become greater for it.
His words were awkward in many ways, but to those who know the man, they were heartfelt. His words dripped with a sorrow that was slowly saturating his being. Yet though it all he allowed me to see this woman I had never met. It is amazing how one can reach so deeply into their soul and capture a sliver of the essensce of one they love in their passing.
Take time to listen to the elderly.
Sometimes our fast paced youthful lives won't allow us much time, work calls, the children are ill, and many other obstacles in life that demand immediate attention will call us away. Put aside your shopping though. There will be time to buy that DVD later. Those shoes on sale will be buried on the bottom of your closet by this time next year. The big game will be replayed for weeks coming on ESPN Classic. There may not be another opportunity to share more time with the elderly in our lives.
I'll even make time for the random elderly person. Listen to their stories of times long past. The struggles of their generation, their own personal demons. Sometimes they want to share their stories for they have no others to share their story with.
I've grown to take pride when I am selected to hear such a story. A person, their time fading, choosing to spend time talking to me. What is there in the world more valuable for us to give each other than our time? We can never earn more time. It is given to us and it is finite. We can only truly choose to spend it more rapidly than nature intended. I accept the gift of time, and I give freely of my own in return. I'll gaze through the open window of times and trials long past.
Someday, should I defy the odds and outlive all whom I love, I hope to find someone as willing to accept the gift of my time, and to give of their own in return that our souls might touch and both become greater for it.