While visiting my mom this Mother’s Day weekend, I am in awe at the loving care she provides my younger sister. Sis has MS and needs a lot of help these days. As I write this from my parents’ home, MSNBC blares loudly on the television, although there appears to be in this household, at least a fondness for the “judge” shows, news and information program reigns supreme. Growing up, there were spirited discussions about politics and world events. We taught to be open to other people’s feelings, kindness was premium. While I possess my late father’s temperment to some degree less these days , my mother’s way of thinking and doing balances it– and me — out. Both parents showed my siblings and I that caring and sharing mattered most. They also showed us that getting older requires even more the need to learn and engage in new things. My father pursued his college degree in his late 50s. My mother is champion bridge player and “business” consultant. With embracing the new, I don’t mean just embracing the new technology, social media or different cultural streams although those things can be part of one’s personal expansion. It’s about a desire to learn and to grow internally as well as externally. Last week I witnessed what it’s like to live for years in the world without the will or desire to grow. One can become a zombie in life and principle without loving care and a willing to be open to new and different things. Growing older physically but not mentally and emotionally is imprisonment. A lot of people will never be free.
Cats & All That ™ 