Something to Look Forward to at last!!

But firstly I must mention age. My own -

You see, when I was young, people thought I was older than I was. When I grew older, people took me for younger than I am. Handy that. It's to do with having a calm exterior and a steady face I think. Hmm. Lately, since Rob died, I have unfortunately undergone accelerated ageing. Without and within. Recently in fact a dear little old lady asked me how many grandchildren I had.. Gosh!

Anyway, accelerated ageing has made me very slow, possibly calmer too. I no longer worry much, I no longer bellow at the kids (as much!), I prioritise. I face life on a does it really matter? basis. Good things are small things. Being together. Laughing. Getting organised. Being in the sunlight - enjoying a book. The list is endless...

So, what is there to look forward to though, in my increasingly older age?

Well, at last, I've found something.

Yes...

This:

A TRIKE!!!















Ah...




My three wheeled epiphany follows a great laugh at work, discussing the best present you ever received as a child. Trikes came top of the list for 40 somethings!

Well, I suggested, why not revert to trikes post 50? Forget bikes and lycra and road rage - Look at all these wide empty cycle lanes on the roads now. Think trike! greater stability, room for a devil-may-care passenger perched on the back, scope for customisation - I was planning winged mudguards for starters - and oh boy, what beats the thrill of cornering on two wheels...

Ahem.

Yes, I know. Big Ears had a trike.

And I know my kids are going to explode with laughter when they read this...

Ah well. I still want one ;-)

Timeless

Searching, through books for meaning - as ever. Have a problem? There'll be the answer in a book.
I'm in a dark and lonely place in life. Feeling old.
Anyway. Bibliophile me. Read this first on a Christmas card, heard it in my head lately, pinned it down just now.
This letter was written by Fra Giovanni Giocondo. An Italian priest. He was 80 when he wrote this almost 500 years ago. Imparting a lifetime's wisdom to a friend to give them comfort and inspiration. It's timeless and universal advice. And a pep talk!
I like it very much -

(Typing interrupted by small son asking: "Mum, mum - what are moths afraid of?" Me answering vaguely: " Oh, sunshine?"... Small son doing bored face, me inspired: "Farts?" He chortles. I type on :-)



Written on Christmas Eve in 1513.

A Letter to a Friend

“I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.”

Fra Giovanni Giocondo