Oh. It is Friday night. And forgive me if I confess. This senior citizen is having a love affair…with life. First it is a love affair with Mother Nature. Then it is a love affair with senior citizens. I must admit that I have not always liked Mother Nature and at times I assumed that I would never get old and thought that seniors should be put on a shelf. No more. Oh Mother Nature has frustrated me a times. I didn’t like the snow in May, the cold and wet spring, or even the heat and dry of summer. But today she is out performing herself. Sure it may rain this week end, but the forecast for the next week is wonderful. No frost. And thanks to Mother Nature I sorted all kinds of beans we picked today. Fresh green beans, yellow wax beans, and Italian flat beans in galore. I don’t ever recall that we have had them in October before. Add to them arugula, mustard greens, and fall radishes from the garden to the still ripening tomatoes, blooming flowers, and you have a gardener’s delight. I suppose there are more exciting things to do on a Friday night in October than to sort vegetables. But tonight? Not for this senior. And for those that think seniors should be put on a shelf--seldom seen and never heard. Oh do I have a message. I know better. Today a senior, older than me, who has had cancer and is going to radiation, showed up to help me--as she often does. She is always positive and soon as her radiation was done today, she jumped in the car, came straight to the farm to help me sort apples, tomatoes, and more. As we worked we recalled old memories, told stories, and made new memories. While we were sorting tomatoes, my older brother in his 80’s was out picking green beans, Italian beans, cherokee wax beans and more for the market tomorrow. He has such energy and a totally optimistic attitude. Then there is my younger brother. He turned 69 today. He was driving down Borden Road on his gator, with a cased shotgun in the passenger seat and his dog in the back of the gator. I waved him down so that he could pick up his birthday present. It was a pumpkin cheesecake made by my friend Pam Addison--a neighbor and a cook par excellence and the best cheesecake maker. Well we laughed and talked about the cheesecake, his hunting trip, and the best dinner we had was when our Mom baked a mallard duck. Oh the memories. And more memories to be made even in our senior years. Laura Ingalls Wilder did not publish her first book until she was my age, Grandma Moses did not sell her first painting until she was 76, and today people as old as I am are climbing to the top of Mount Everest. Oh my. So tonight I salute Mother Nature, embrace my senior status, and believe that my best days are yet to come. And I think the same is true for you--at whatever age you are. So tonight? The best to you from the little farm deep in the woods of northern Minnesota.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 22:52:41 +0000
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