It's Wednesday morning, it just snowed about 12 inches, the kids have a day off from school and I am sitting with my memere while she watches bobsledding on the television. It's hard not to be reminiscent when I visit my grandmother. The grandmother I knew for my entire childhood and a good portion of my adulthood is not the same person that sits before me now. It's easy to become sad and long for the days that have passed, the days when I could find her knitting a new hat, making crepes for her family or tending to her plants. That grandmother no longer exists, as it is very difficult for her to even perform daily tasks without a great deal of assistance. Dwelling on these thoughts can often bring her loved ones to tears, and it certainly doesn't change the situation that exists in front of us now.
Several weeks ago, I wrote briefly about the beauty that can be found in hard things. Although we don't choose the difficult roads in life, we are able to make the decision about which way to go when we come to the detours. We can try to find the beauty in every situation, even when it may be a struggle to see it.
My grandmother is different from the sharp, resourceful woman she once was, but she is still beautiful. She lights up when a loved one walks into the room, even if she struggles to retrieve their name from her memory. She is so thankful each and every day for her family. She giggles like a child when we tease her. She appreciates the small things. She is the essence of living in the moment, because really, she has nothing else.
We could all learn something from her.
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
― Henry David Thoreau
― Henry David Thoreau
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