April 21, 2005
I’ve been spending a lot of time with my niece and nephew lately and it’s so wonderful to be so close to innocence and youth…it makes me wonder when we all started ‘growing up.’…or should I say, ‘stopped growing up.’ I wonder when the curiosity to explore life left us…when we became afraid to try something new…when we stopped asking questions.
Some people say I ask too many questions…and that I’m persistent when trying to figure out the answers. (And I usually ask the really hard questions.) But I think it’s important to question…to humble yourself with the fact that you do not know it all, that you will never know it all…
I also recently helped a very old lady get transported to the hospital for her daily visits with her doctor…and it was painful to see a woman suffering from dementia, housed in a body that is no longer serving her. There are no good words to describe the feeling of being caught in-between two worlds of new life and death.
I realize that in our society, we don’t often see the elderly…almost as if they are hidden away somewhere so that we don’t become fearful of our own mortality…there is so much wisdom concentrated in these people, so much we can learn and appreciate. I pray that we will never forget where we came from…and that when I grow old, I will always want to replay the memories of my youth, especially when I was a young adult exploring my existence and the meaning to life.