Another year is drawing to a close; another year is dawning.
We’re even going into another decade. Many people say they can’t believe it’s 2011, but remember this time of year as we drew near 2000? The talk was all about Y2K and the potential crash from computers having to change centuries.
Depending upon our age, we could say:
Remember the first man on the moon?
Remember the end of World War II?
Remember Vietnam?
Remember Sonny and Cher?
I may look at a new baby and recall my first-born, who is 26, as a new baby.
But my mother remembers me as a newborn and her mother remembers her as a newborn.
We have video of my mother coming home from the hospital with me (in 1957). It was quite humorous to watch because then, the mothers were kept in the hospital for 10 days, and even came home wearing a robe and being cared for as though they were fragile.
I can remember almost always going home within a day or two at the most of a baby’s birth.
Funny how we are about time, isn’t it? When we’re young (and depending upon your age, that changes), we believe every week (especially in school) is an eternity. Teen-agers will throw a fit to do something right now, never realizing that many of their activities will be forgotten withthe passage of time.
My youngest child just turned 9. He said he can’t wait to turn 10 because that will be “double digits.” Funny, when we’re young, we can’t wait to grow older. And for some, especially in this culture that worships youth, we rue aging.
I’ll never forget one young man upon turning 26 bemoaning that he was closer to 30 than to 20.
Now, he’s over 30 and realizes it’s not so bad.
Although my youngest just turned 9, my eldest is 26. My mother is 76 and my grandmother just turned 96. Some of my dear friends are well over 70 and I have often basked in their wisdom and nostalgia.
Years ago, I was walking down the hallway of a nursing home with one of my great-great-aunts who was close to 90. She kept pointing out other residents saying: “See that old lady over there...”
I marveled and wondered what she saw when she looked in the mirror because to my 25-year-old eyes, she was old.
I’ve known people of 50 to be old; their attitudes and thoughts hindered them. I’ve known people of 80 to be “young,” as in vivacious and vibrant, although hindered by aging bodies. But, their attitudes were joyful, grateful and willing to continue to learn and serve.
A dear lady with whom I shared a birthday, but who was over 90 when she died, was an example of someone who never aged inside. She taught Sunday school to 5-year-olds for 50 years. She gardened and had a green house and was always giving away baby plants she had begun. She sewed and collected fabrics. She loved to read and to love people. She never stopped learning.
One Sunday morning as I walked into the nursery area, I heard a young lady expressing great consternation about being pregnant and 30. I had to laugh. She was expecting her second child. I was 40, pregnant and expecting my eighth. It is indeed all in the perspective, isn’t it?
With a new year, people are prone to make resolutions, and sometimes those are unrealistic and usually broken within the first week.
They vow:
◊To adopt a healthy lifestyle - diet, exercise, etc.;
◊To stop a bad habit - maybe something as simple as biting fingernails to something unhealthy like smoking;
◊To change a character trait - be more kind, stop cursing, be more generous;
◊To save money.
The list can go on and on and on. And, so can excuses on why we don’t persevere in our resolutions.
As we age, it does seem that time goes faster, but in reality, the passage of timeis all the same. It’s the perspective. For a 2-year-old, a year is 50 percent of his life (as with my eldest grandson). For a 100-year-old, as with my friend’s grandmother, it’s only 1 percent.
In Psalm 90, Moses (who lived to be 120) wrote: “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night ... The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (verses 4 and 10)
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom,” verse 12.
It behooves each of us, regardless of our age, to seek wisdom and to learn each day, to learn from each mistake and to rejoice in each day as a blessing.
This year, let us resolve to begin each day with gratefulness and joy and to share that with others.
Let us resolve to learn from - and not repeat - our mistakes.
Let us resolve to give more than we take.
And let us share good things with others.
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Editor’s note: Annette Beard is the managing editor of The Times of Northeast Benton County. A native of Louisiana, she moved to northwest Arkansas in 1980. She has nine children, one grandson and another grandson due in April. She can be reached at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 4 on 12/29/2010