Hello boys and girls. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the blessings we all share. This weekend was another....."knock-knock....is anybody home?" kind of lesson to put in my journal on life.
The weekend started off with a reunion of a bunch of friends getting together who had worked at the same restaurant that Gommy worked at many moons ago. It was so wonderful to see everyone and many came from very far away. Goms was lucky in that Grandpa and I live close by and didn't have to fly in to celebrate with everyone. The wake-up part for Gommy was that it had been over twenty-five years since some of us had seen each other. It makes you realize how fleeting time really is.....and it also makes you wonder if you had used all those years to the best of your abilities.
The second part of my wake-up weekend was spent visiting Grandpa's mom in a convalescent home. She is not doing well and we were very sad to see her so ill. Nana has always been so full of life and has always had a mind that is as sharp as a tack! The whole family would call her when they couldn't think of a movie-star from a certain movie, or the name of a neighbor from long ago, or the name of the store on this street or that.....This was before you could look up all this stuff on the Internet. She always knew the answer. She and granddaddy always came to all the children's celebrations. Birthdays, baptisms, graduations....you name it. They were always there to celebrate with everyone. Granddaddy has since passed and up until very recently, Nana was still able to get it together and get going! The nagging in the back of my head kept reminding me that it was 'only' twenty-six years ago that Nana was the age Gommy is today! And it seems like just yesterday when I look back.
Grandpa & Gommys' little sixteen month old granddaughter Kyra went along as well with her mommy and daddy. The stark difference in the age of this sweet little child and her sweet great-grandmother was very obvious in the setting of an old aged home. There was this energetic, happy, frolicking youth displayed in little Kyra and then there was the reality that many of these people were at the very end of their lives and just waiting.....waiting to leave their life here on Earth. As we were leaving and going down corridor after corridor of people sitting in wheelchairs....it seemed like I was watching a movie where the people were all lined up and waiting for someone to come to take them to their final destination. You could see how much life little Kyra brought to the 'home'. The older patients just oohed and ahhed over her youthful energy. It is always that way when someone very old sees a baby or toddler. It is the reality that life is just beginning for the little one. And life has already been spent for the older ones.
There was also a younger man there (around 35), who looked as if he either had a disease that crippled him or had been paralyzed from something else. It was very sad to think that he would be living the rest of his life in this environment. He was in a wheelchair and I noticed he was just chatting with a male nurse and it was obvious that the reason was because the male nurse was the closest person around who he could relate to.
Talk about counting your blessings!!! Gommy was counting and recounting them all the way home. And I am still thinking about how blessed I am to this very minute. We take for granted that we will always be able to take care of ourselves. And that we will have the option to just get up and go whenever we feel like it. Well peeps....there are no guarantees in life and Goms would suggest we take a little time to realize how blessed we are to be able to do these things.
The next time you find yourself complaining about anything....think about the poor person who doesn't have your options. Don't like your job? I bet someone out there would like to have your job. To feel good about themselves again. To not have to depend on their parents or friends or other relatives for help. Don't like to have to cook dinner? Think of those people who are homeless and don't have dinner every night. Don't like the shape you find your body in lately? Thank your lucky stars that you don't have to be taking chemotherapy or radiation treatments to cure a cancer somewhere in that body. Gommy doesn't want to be a Debbie-Downer....but we could all use a swift kick in the butt at times to give us a reality check.
Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 - because if we had a crystal ball....we may have done certain things differently. Goms, for one thing, would surely have squeezed out every single ounce from the joyous times spent with those that are no longer with me. And I would have watched my finances more prudently and I would have been kinder at certain times and.... And............wait a minute.......if I hadn't had all the life experiences I have had.....would I still be Gommy? Would I be a better me? A worse me? I'll never know those answers will I? You know why? Because that isn't the way it works.
Let me let you in on a little secret. The very reason we do go through all that we do.....is to learn our life lessons. Those of us who don't use the lessons to get it right.....have to repeat the lessons over and over....until we do get it. Sadly some never seem to get it. You can tell those people by the vacant look in their eyes, by the sadness they show, by the anger they have built up inside, by the blame they place elsewhere, by the crutches they have become dependent on (drugs, alcohol, overeating, abusing those less able to defend themselves, etc.) This is not a finger-pointing session in any way. All of those crutches are very real diseases. And no one can cure the disease except the person who is afflicted. We can point to the direction of help....but until they are ready.....it isn't going to work.
It is the same with finding happiness. I read somewhere that when we continue to look for happiness.....it is like trying to catch a butterfly...it is always just out of reach. And when we do have moments of real happiness...we are likely to tire of it eventually and search for the next 'fix' of whatever will make us happy again. I guess that is why you hear of so many stars who are addicted. Gommy used to wonder how or why they needed to get high when they seemed to have everything. Goms says 'used to' because I have come to learn that happiness isn't something to search for....we already have it. We have everything we need. If we just look around. There is abundance everywhere.
And another little secret that is actually hard to grasp......but is very true.....is that whatever you are withholding from others, is the very thing that you are searching for. Gommy had a hard time with this one herself. It is a slippery thought that if you don't have something....and you give it...it will come to you. I know!!!!! Hard to wrap you mind around. But the Bible also says in Luke 6: 38: Give, and (gifts) will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour into the pouch formed by the bosom of your robe and used as a bag. For with the measure you deal out with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others, it will be measured back to you.
You hear on TV all the time about how we are going to run out of this or run out of that.....NOT. Can't you see that there is always enough. At least in most places. Gommy isn't talking about third world countries. I'm talking about right here in America.
But back to the wake-up call. Please take the time to notice how wonderful it is to be able to take a bath by yourself. Be grateful for that bologna sandwich you made for lunch yesterday. When you snuggle into your bed tonight....be thankful that you have a bed to snuggle in. And may every day be a day to start out with the feeling of gratitude in your heart.
Take Gommy's advice boys and girls. Life goes by in the blink of an eye. Try to be a gentler, kinder, more appreciative 'you'. It is really a much more pleasant way to live. Like they always say....'take a little time to smell the roses along the way.' All those sayings are true. Like....'life is short'...or 'don't sweat the small stuff', 'live and let live'...they are all good ways to look at life. Enjoy the many blessings we all share. You can do it.....Gommy is pulling for you. Hugs & Mush, Gommy
