Tag: seniordom

Learning How to Fly

Fledgling Starling Rests Briefly Before its Next Take Off ~ Shared by M.

Christ is Risen!

It’s truly amazing how much God loves us all… including those precious little fledgling birds “coming in hot” and touching down safely in daisy dotted fields!

It’s hard work learning how to fly! I KNOW, because I tried really hard when I was around three or four years old… Vaulting off picnic tables and launching myself out from low tree branches.

My hair (styled in required pig-tails) although catching the wind, never helped with upward thrust. It was a rude awakening that my flapping arms were simply too slow, and just couldn’t cut a decent lift off.

Never thwarted for long, I logically hatched a brand new plan on my high-tech Etch-a-Sketch (taking in all previous failings and fallings into account), and a brand new, final experiment became that day’s Swan Song.

Let’s just say it could have ended more disastrously, with my leaping high off the top bunk bed (bumping my head on the ceiling) all while holding a balloon. Gravity prevailed, and I wouldn’t blame my long-suffering Guardian Angel if he may have pondered an immediate transfer that day, but has stolidly stuck with me… And still protects me! (Thank you Holy Guardian Angel!)

Mom, ever-commiserating, consoled me. First, by telling me to stop bleeding all over her newly washed kitchen floor, and second, distractingly bandaging my bruises, along with sharing the amazing concept – there were other “ways” we can soar aloft… in our minds and hearts! That it’s our souls that have invisible wings! God made us all special, in our own ways.

Today, I’m sitting placidly beside an open window and joyfully hearing the many kinds of birds in my yard singing sweet songs of praise, who are Blessing the Name of the Lord, from henceforth and forever more!

Meanwhile, I’m still learning how to fly in the way God wants me to. It’s a life-long process. Happily, there are inklings of updraft, and for that I’m grateful.

God is Good!

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father… Fear ye not, therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows. ~ St. Matthew 10:29,31

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. ~ St. Luke 12:6,7

Truly He is Risen!

My Hoary Head

Christ is Risen!

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation. ~ Psalm 71:18

Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life. ~ Proverbs 16:31

Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?~ Job 12:12

Hoary Head definition: Gray/white/frosty-hair colour denoting advanced elderly, venerable age. A hoary head in the Bible refers to gray or white hair symbolizing old age, wisdom, experience and honour. It’s derived from the Hebrew word seivah, and represents a life of righteousness, and is considered a crown of glory when found on a righteous person. (A continuing lifelong project for me!)

Although most women in our family turned gray early, many chose not to go quietly into the night, and fiercely dyed their hair in dark, vibrant hues of ash browns or deep auburns. Sometimes, a respectful nod to their approaching triple digits, would inspire a type of Elsa Lanchester-ish style with lightening-bolt streaks of shocking white, “to look more natural.”

Granted, back in the business world of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, many women felt pressured to appear younger, and thusly dyed their hair due to these situations – and not because they preferred it for artistic self expression, as is more the case these days.

Since my early 40’s I’ve chosen to embrace the beginnings of an hoary head, not because of any “wisdom” or “righteousness” on my part, but on account that it was a beautiful God-given silver colour I appreciated.

As they say – growing older ain’t for sissies, and fully embracing internal acknowledgement of one finally hitting a “certain age” takes guts. Serious guts. (With or without reflux.)

For decades, each new and approaching stage of life was previously and eagerly anticipated with all its (mostly) wonderful changes. Until, one day, it dawns on you that yup, you’re really a SENIOR, but, at least on the outside. Logically, the numbers add up, but, oddly, inside – you still feel the way you’ve always felt since youth!

Avoiding acceptance of Seniordom is futile in our mortal wheelhouse. We don’t have to like it, it’s just the way it is. Graceful acceptance helps us to persevere, with God’s Help.

I remember waking my 99 year grandma Faith at the care home from her afternoon nap, to go for our regular Sunday drive. She would stand up, slip on her shoes, totter over to the dresser looking for her lipstick, glance in the mirror with one good eye, and shriek, “Mercy! I look like the Wreck of the Hesperus! That’s not me in there!” Then, armed with a fresh application of lipstick and blessed with a short term memory, she immediately changed the subject and spryly set off with us for a drive through the park to enjoy an ice cream cone.

My first glimpses of a newish (heavy on the ish) Seniordom were observed through friends and family. While everyone else seemed to be aging, I wasn’t, or at least, maybe I was, but only a little?

This scrutiny produced new temptations to judge others due to “their” denial of growing older… based on length of rogue nostril hairs, chin whiskers, not wearing glasses, OR wearing too many readers-glasses at once.

When I finally acquiesced to the blatant fact that I myself was almost as blind as a bat and, *gasp* needed glasses, I remember trying on my new prescription and the consternation of literally having my pastel, Gaussian-Blurred-World ripped cruelly away – to discover my own husband actually now had a few wrinkles, as did I! Sadly, it’s always easier to see (with or without glasses) others’ foibles before our own.

Lord Have Mercy!

There’s a quote from circa 500 B.C., attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus, who lamented (possibly inspired by a menopausal wife?), “Change is the only constant.”

Indeed it is.

But, I’ll also JOYFULLY add, that above all else, God is our only constant, and never changes. The only Spiritual Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding that counts, is from God. I’m continuing to labour on that righteous Crown of Glory, albeit at the pace of a senior tortoise, but that’s ok!

Just keep on moving to keep moving!

Greetings on tomorrow’s Mid-Feast of Pentecost and Great-Martyr St. George’s Day!

Congratulations on your Saint’s Day tomorrow, Matushka Alexandra and Shura! Memory Eternal, dear George.

Truly He is Risen!

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