WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND.....and other thoughts on growing old

Someone, lazylazyme I think it was (see his blog called too tired to be corrupt @ blogspot) said the following:

OUR PARENTS BECOME THE CHILDREN WE NEVER ASKED FOR.

Boy, there is certainly some truth to that one. And his comment has kept me thinking about it for several days since I first read it. Think. Think. Think. I'm kinda like Pooh who walks around tapping his head and trying to think about what it was he was suppose to think about. LOL

Anyway -- our parents growing older.

That seems to be quite the problem these days.

And I've come up with some thoughts on that. Nothing heavy-duty, mind you. Just some thoughts which I'd like to pass along -- and I'd like to get them onto paper (or the equivalant of paper!) and out of my own brain so I can think about some other "stuff" for awhile!

We all grow old.

In fact...every day we are alive we are just a little closer to "old" than we were the day before yesterday.

Some of us grow older a great deal more gracefully than others.

Some of us are old before our time! We drink and smoke and take basically terrible care of these beautiful machines we have called our bodies. We only get one, but we act like we get several or like the one we have is invincible!

Phyllis Diller once said, "Be nice to your children. They're the ones who are going to pick out your nursing home!" There is some truth to this statement!

I think it's a really good idea to do some thinking about just what KIND of older person we want to end up being.....seriously. Since life just seems to sneak up on us, this decision needs to be made quite a number of years ahead of time.

For instance....do you have a neighbor or an aunt that is just the greatest person to be around even though she is in ill health, getting up there in years and no one ever visits her much? The kind that never says a complaining word, never tries to make you feel guilty about how you are too busy to come visit, who is just happy when you do visit and lets you go happily when you need to leave? Is that the kind of person you'd like to be when you "grow up"?

It's that kind of stuff I like to ponder on.

So, too, there is the subject of our parents.

I know what you mean.

They get up there in years, we get up there into the age where they use to be and now we can't tell them much of anything!! It's absolutely frustrating!

It's role-reversal and I am not happy about it.

Are you?

And at the same time I have to laugh about it. And laugh we must! We simply must laugh because if we don't we are going to end up being frustrated, angry old people! Our parents are going to be dead and gone and you know what we are going to be ranting and raving about into our old age?

Yep.

Our parents and what pains-in-the-butt they "used to be".

Pathetic.

And you know what else?

No one ....read that again...NO ONE is going to want to sit and listen to us gripe about our parents and how awful it was to try and deal with them! No one is going to care. Think I'm wrong on this? Do you enjoy listenning to your parents complain about your grandparents? I'm thinking probably not.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves us with today....and tomorrow and all the other days coming down the pike!

And there is only one day we have to be patient, kind, understanding and compassionate with our parents .... and that is today.

Tomorrow will take care of itself.

And if we can do it this way....by the time the far-away "tomorrow" of OUR old age gets here -- we will be really fun folks to be around.

I know several 93 yr. olds today...and let me assure you it is the ones who are like the above person I described (the guilt-free version) that I gravitate to over and over again.

Whew.

I think my brain can now go back to "normal" again. Now that I got that all off my chest!

But then "normal" is just a setting on the dryer, right? LOL

Thanks for dropping by and come back anytime!! By-the-way, I framed the sixty-four year-old maple leaf in a gold frame, with it mounted on a beautiful, textured sheet of white paper -- It looks stunning and sits here reminding me that even a maple leaf can have a wonderful message! And that my grandmother managed to leave behind a simple treasure....