Youth and Age

This last week has been of experiencing the generations particularly youth and age and it brings into sharp focus for me how the onset of the latter years is fast approaching! A sobering thought. Life is a series of opening and closing doors - or gates - as we progress through life. We pass from our birth and infant years, to childhood, then the teenage years and into adulthood. 


We mature and hopefully reach a balanced and fulfilling time of life. Then we move into the autumn of our lives and as the years pass (if we are so blessed) we age be it gracefully or disgracefully, be it willingly or unwillingly until death comes to take us by the hand into that unknown land.


I was thrust into the complex and exhilarating word of four teenage boys during the holidays, with testosterone raging, loud music, mood swings, changing emotions, sibling rivalry, and energy to die for. Watching my two grandsons and their mates was a pure delight. My grandsons seemed to have grown over night from those laughing little toddlers to these teenagers obsessed with clothes, (how I wish they would wear a belt to keep those jeans up instead of having them barely hanging on their slender hips) carefully styled hairdo, girls  who are 'cool'  and the ever present  gadgets such as iphones glued to their ears and the ever present mobiles for constant txting!


Fortunately though,  'youth is a disease from which we all recover,' as Dorothy Fulheim said.


They really were invigorating, funny, infuriating and frustrating all at the same time but I love them to bits. They put up with Nan's hugs and kisses and my house rules and were a great help in the garden but most of all they were like a breathe of fresh air as the years slipped away for the time they were with me.



It seemed only yesterday that my three sons were that age now my daughter has four sons of her own. It was a time for my daughter and I to celebrate the joys of  being mothers.It was a time to share the love and importance of family and friends.

My grandsons, Codey & Rory - 'Oh the years of youth with
the future before you and where the world is your oyster!'

In complete contrast I took an older friend of mine to see an elderly friend of ours who had recently  suffered quite a severe stroke and was in a local rest-home. We knew that our friend had good mobility and could feed herself but that her speech was affected but to what degree we weren't sure. Our friend met us at the door having seen (and recognised) us from the lounge. We went to her room and it was there that we realised how badly her speech had been affected. It was as though all the speech 'wires' in her brain had been crossed and what came out was a confused jumble of words.

This was an intelligent, lively woman in her eighties who still ran the local line dancing, was still active in our local dramatic society, albeit now the queen of the kitchen as opposed to the stage and who took an active interest in local affairs. 

It was heart-breaking. It left us feeling so helpless and sad for our friend who was struggling to tell us what she needed to yet unable to have the words come out in an intelligible order for us to understand. Yet, miraculously we did intuitively have a sense, a feeling of what our friend was trying desperately to convey to us and we gave her our undivided attention for the time we were with her.

'You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.'  ~Douglas MacArthur


But when something like a stroke happens life can be overwhelming. For this 'young at heart' elderly woman life has dealt a cruel blow yet despite it all she still has the will to get better, to battle on and to get her message out. To go back home is her goal and only time will tell if she can achieve her dream.


This visit made me realise how precious each day is, and to make the most of every single one for unlike youth, old age is not something we can recover from but as Brigette Bardot said -"It's sad to grow old, but nice to ripen". 

Like the rose we are born, we blossom and we die
with each stage having the potential to hold
life in all it's glory, richness and beauty