I work for the County Commission on Aging. Yesterday was our annual Christmas Party for the seniors and we had about 200 of them with us for the day. We always have lunch and a wonderful band and presents and the seniors dance for hours...and oh can they dance...
They waltz, two step, line dance, jitterbug, polka...and sometimes if I'm very lucky one of them will pull me out on the floor. Some come in with walkers and canes but they aren't needed on the dance floor because there's always someone to hold them up.
They are incredible, each one of them absolutely incredible and it's one of the great privileges of my life to be able to spend time with them.
There are those who have lost a husband or wife already and are newly in love dancing to the slow songs like kids at junior prom and there are those who've been married for 60 years, have 11 children and 32 grandchildren who dance like it's the first time. It's the music...but not only the music. They view the world with the wisdom of a life fully lived. These are the folks who accept the decisions they've made and where life is taking them and for a while the music makes the harder parts melt away.
And in the midst of it all one of them took me by the arm - I don't even know his name - and he said 'You know the best thing about you?...You're always so happy.'
He caught me off guard a bit and I realized he doesn't know it but the reason he thinks that is because being with them makes me happy. What he really meant was that the best thing about me is my love for all of them. They make it easy. It's impossible not to be happy when I'm with them.
They waltz, two step, line dance, jitterbug, polka...and sometimes if I'm very lucky one of them will pull me out on the floor. Some come in with walkers and canes but they aren't needed on the dance floor because there's always someone to hold them up.
They are incredible, each one of them absolutely incredible and it's one of the great privileges of my life to be able to spend time with them.
There are those who have lost a husband or wife already and are newly in love dancing to the slow songs like kids at junior prom and there are those who've been married for 60 years, have 11 children and 32 grandchildren who dance like it's the first time. It's the music...but not only the music. They view the world with the wisdom of a life fully lived. These are the folks who accept the decisions they've made and where life is taking them and for a while the music makes the harder parts melt away.
And in the midst of it all one of them took me by the arm - I don't even know his name - and he said 'You know the best thing about you?...You're always so happy.'
He caught me off guard a bit and I realized he doesn't know it but the reason he thinks that is because being with them makes me happy. What he really meant was that the best thing about me is my love for all of them. They make it easy. It's impossible not to be happy when I'm with them.
1 comment:
awww
just awwww
you should submit this one to Readers Digest--they'd love it!
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