The happiest person I can recall was Marie. She was a 99 year old, Hershey Kiss addicted, very happy and toothless lady. When I found out she was from Georgia, I asked if she was a Georgia Peach? She retorted in her lovely southern drawl, “I’m a Georgia Crack-ah!”. Needless to say, I was very charmed by that little lady.
She was a resident in the rest home I worked in about 15 years ago. I loved taking care of her. She was always smiling and we’d have little chats about her life. I once asked Marie her secret to happiness. She said, “my Mammy once said she decides to be happy so I did that too”. A very dated, yet accurate response. Remember she was a 99 year old southerner.
Marie was also a palm reader. One evening, she carefully read the story of my life with her softly withered finger. I asked, will I live to 100? “Nope.” she said. I had to laugh at her blunt answer. She guessed I’d live to, “maybe 86”. So at 49, maybe most of my life has gone by. Maybe I should worry. If Marie’s right, I’ve got about 37 years to go. Then again, that’s also a ton of time: 37 years = 13,505 days = 324,120 hours.
Birthdays always leave me contemplating my time on earth. As my friend Tammy Carter said on her last birthday. “When I actually stop and think about the fact that I’m almost 50, I can’t help but think WAIT! What the heck? I don’t want to maybe be half done! Then I pause and think, well, when I look back on things back in my teenage years I feel like it was a lifetime ago. ..and in that case, I still have at least another lifetime to go! That makes me lucky♡”
So, feeling lucky and maybe buying some Hershey’s Kisses today.
Takeaways:
- Live well, you could be here for a long time.
- Time is elastic, if you have any doubts remember recess. I could get married, play, pee and make a new friend, all in 15 minutes.
- Eat the chocolate.
Websites:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-anderson/why-second-half-of-life-better_b_12662164.html
http://japansocietyny.blogspot.com/2013/09/in-vestments-kanreki-rebirth-at-age-60.html
