PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

She crawled into her Grandpa’s lap…it brought a smile to his face…

for he loved anytime they had the chance to share in the same space.  

“Why do people grow old?” She asked.  

“Will I ever be as old as you?”

Then she gently rubbed his face and asked,

 “Will I have wrinkles too?”

Grandpa smiled. “Growing old is a gift.” He said. 

“I wouldn’t be too concerned,

for every day you grow a little older is another chance 

to live

to love

to learn.”

“The world is filled with miracles.” He continued. “from the biggest to the small.

and with so many miracles out there…it takes time to see them all.”

“Take that tree out back…the one you’re climbing all the time…

It took years of growing up to make it strong enough to climb."

“And that bark you love to feel…means it’s growing old gracefully…

for bark is nothing more than the wrinkles of the tree.”

“Don’t be afraid of wrinkles as you grow up…be glad you’ve acquired some…

for your wrinkles only go to show how wise you have become.”

“If you only learn one thing from me.” He said

“Let it be to grow old with fondness and affection..

and never think of it as growing old…

think of it…as aging to perfection.”

 Sometimes as we age…as we hit the downside of our prime

we have a tendency to forget things…occasionally to lose track of the time.

And even though our memory becomes something we can’t always seem to manage

there are those days…those moments…when we can use this to our advantage.

The other day I woke up convinced that is was Friday…and although Fridays I adore 

Deborah informed me early on…that it was the day before.

But because of the way this old man’s memory works…I didn’t feel betrayed…

On the contrary since it was Thursday instead of Friday…

in my mind I gained an entire day

Immediately I decided not to think of how the connections in my memory crossed 

but to take advantage of the 24 hours I thought that I had lost.

It made my breakfast smoothie taste better than usual…putting a smile on my face…

Next we decided to play putt-putt in Maggie Valley at our favorite putt-putt place.

From putt-putt we headed to Joey’s pancake house for lunch…

(not wanting these precious added hours to stop)

where I ate lemon poppyseed pancakes with blueberry syrup on top.

For dinner we bought tuna subs from Subway 

and took a picnic to our favorite place on the Blue Ridge Parkway to eat… 

I even had them put double tuna on my sub…for an extra added treat.

In the evening we sat on our porch…the end of a day I’ll never forget

playing our favorite card game while watching a mountain sunset.

And I went to bed thinking how lucky I was…glad I had found a way

to enjoy every moment, every minute…every hour…of my extra day.

You might be thinking to yourself…that’s impossible…

there’s no way for anyone to can gain an entire day…

but my old brain, 

and my old heart…

do not feel the same way.

 When I look into a mirror these days…my old face is what I see…

and many is the day I wonder…how this came to be.

As I look a little closer…I touch my face and say,

“Where did all these wrinkles come from…and what’s with all this gray?”

For me…what makes this seem so unbelievable, so dreamlike…so unreal

is the me I see in the mirror often looks so much older than I feel.

Which leads me to wonder…

every time I see that old man’s face staring back at me

if our bodies on the outside and how we feel on the inside…grow old differently.

What if our old age shows up on the outside…

hence the color gray and the wrinkles on our skin…

but what if our youth…protected by our body…ages more slowly…from within.

What if we’re more like a book and our body is the cover…

a cover that as we age has weathering we can’t hide…

but what if our cover is there to protect and preserve

our youthfulness and our story that’s inside?

What if, understanding this, as we age…

we open our cover a little more slowly…gently…with great care…

knowing memories of when we were younger…are waiting for us there.

And for a while as we visit the memories we find inside the pages of our book

For a moment as if by magic…we are younger than we look.

Which is why most times when I pass a mirror today

and see that old man with all those wrinkles on my skin…

I open the weathered cover of my book…to find the younger man within.

As I’ve grown a little older…when I stop to look around

I see life moves as fast as it always has…but it’s me who has slowed down.

As I climb the ladder of life…each year reaching a new rung…

I’m slowed by knees and eyes and ears 

that don’t work as well as they did when I was young.

“You can’t run on me anymore!”

That’s what my knees would say if my knees could talk.

So instead of running from place to place…I’ve been forced to walk.

And while I’m walking 

because my eyes don’t see as clearly as they used to see

I’m forced to walk a little slower and sometimes stop…

to see what I want to see. 

Because my hearing over the years has started to fade away

I have to look more people in the eye and listen more carefully

to what they have to say.

But…since I have to walk more slowly, 

and look and listen more carefully to the world around me…

I find I have the time to enjoy a little more 

the people and the beauty that surrounds me.

Which makes me wonder about all the beauty I might have missed…

all the wonder

all the fun…

back when I had eyes and ears that worked much better…

atop knees on which I’d run.

There are many signs I have grown older…that make me wonder…how

in the blink of an eye…

All the time I’ve been alive…all the years that have slipped by.

When I look into a mirror…sometimes…I feel chagrin…

What hair I have left has turned to gray…and there are wrinkles on my skin.

Sometimes my body aches…from my head down to my toes…

Are my ears supposed to be this big?

And don’t get me started on my nose!

But I don’t need a mirror to see how quickly time has flown.

All I have to do is look at my children…and grandchildren  

and see how much they’ve grown.

As I see the men and women they’ve become…

and are becoming

Across my face a smile spreads…

That smooths out every wrinkle and softens every gray hair on my head.

A smile that extends out to my ears…and changes the shape of my nose…

that soothes any ache I might be feeling…from my head down to my toes.

I know I’m growing older…of this I have no doubt….

but growing older has never been something I worry too much about….

Because, no matter how many years have passed….

No matter how many swings the pendulum of time has swung….

My children and my grandchildren have always found a way

to make me feel young.