Dad's birthday celebrations went really well thanks to a great team effort and my brother's family's hospitality.
Then Dad became ill and had to be hospitalized. I prolonged my stay in Australia and accompanied them back home to help them get on with downsizing their current home ready for a move into a more suitable place. How many of us are at that stage with their parents?? There have been a few articles in the Australian newspaper lately about these things and about accumulation of material things! Very timely.
However, what I enjoyed looking through was a little book of thoughts on being 80 that Mum gave to Dad. As we accompany our ageing rellies, we are also faced with our own perception of time, of wealth or modest means or even poverty. We have to revise our idea of what is normal and revise our idea of ourselves - where does my sense of identity come from? My social status, my work, my function as ...??? We are especially challenged about who would be there for us when our time comes: but it raises the question of dependency, independance, what all that means, and if it is one of our core values. Then I've been comparing these themes with the Christian message.
In particular, I'm getting a lot out of a book called:
Here are some gems from that little book about turning 80:
"Memory is the place where our vanished days secretly gather, providing a beautiful shelter and continuity of identity." John O'Donohue
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. John Wooden
At the age of 80, everything reminds you of something else. Lowell Thomas.
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