Learning from our elders

Tgif Treadmill Treats

Learning from our elders

This is the last of this week's series of being grateful.
I leave you with this one, how we can learn from our elders. How we can learn gratitude from them, learn to be grateful for them and all they have done for us.

If you read my blog you know I am a single mom and I have 3 jobs, one of them is doing hair. Recently I got a one day a week gig at a assisted living place, doing all the residents hair.

In this country we tend to throw away our elderly, we don't think they have much to offer any more. We are not like the Chinese who cherise their elderly as people with wisdom, people they look up to for advice.
No, we don't do that here, once you get to a certain age, you are no longer relevant, you have nothing to offer so most times they throw you into a nasty nursing home never to be seen again.

I know this for a fact as I see this week after week. People who are smart, funny and have a world of knowledge just left by themselves after giving so much to so many people.

I see this gift in them and I love to talk to them. I want to know how did they survive without washers, lights, refrigerators?
What it was like working in the cotton fields, being a women in a time where you had no voice? I have so many questions.

Yes, we have grown so much since then but they have so much to teach us.

One of my clients is 102! And when I tell you she is as sharp as a knife, she dresses up every day, gets her hair done once a week, can walk and definitely knows what she wants.
I want to grow up to be her!
I recently asked her what is the secret to living to 102, she said have good children and to do what you want to do.

She traveled the world by herself at 40, she started a new career at 50, she fought for women's rights even back then, she joined the Israeli military at 55!

Now keep in mind that doesn't sound like much in today's standards but that was 50 plus years ago, when women were suppose to know their place, where women didn't dare to dream big like that.

She said do what you love, do what you want even when they say you can't. She said break barriers, do the things you thought you never could.

Yes, she is my hero, she never complains, she is never negative, she had a wonderful life and yes, her children visit her all the time, unbelievable.

Yes, I have heard stories from them that I have only read about in books, things I could never imagine having to go through, escaping  from communist countries, surving the Holocaust, the drought, the war, the rations, things we never had to deal with, thank God.

Yes, their tenacity is amazing, their will to survive, their ability to change with the times, all of this we can learn from them, if we take the time.

So today my friends remember that our elderly are gifts, they fought the battles so that we could have our freedoms we have today.

They are the great minds that invented so many of today's comforts, they have seen and heard so much more than we will ever, even as smart as we think we are. They've done so much more than we could ever do today without machines or Youtube!

Learn from these resources, treat them like the national treasures that they are. Take time out of your "busy" lives and go visit them, sit and talk with them, treat them with the respect they deserve and be grateful that they paved the way for you, so many years ago.

"Be the change you want to see"
 
"And just when the caterpillar thought his life over...he turned into a beautiful butterfly"

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