Full Cycle
- At March 05, 2021
- By admin
- In Annes Letters
0
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been several months since I started physical therapy for my arm. The Japanese take a gentle approach, which means extended time for rehabilitation. I like my therapist a lot and the hospital is very pleasant. However, I am finding this long, ongoing process has become rather tedious.
Today, though, as I approached the entrance to the hospital, I was greeted by something very unusual. Nurses were wheeling an ancient man in a bed outside. He was so old and frail that he seemed to be teetering on the edge between this life and the next. Despite his fragility, however, he was alert.
There, eagerly waiting for him was a lovely young mother, holding her newborn. “Grandfather, Grandfather, I want to introduce you to my baby,” she said, as she held her swaddled infant up for this great-great grandfather to see.
The old man slowly lifted his stick-like arms and touched the cheeks of the wide-eyed baby. “Ah, ah,” he kept repeating. Love and joy radiated everywhere around them. It was obvious the new mother loved her (great) grandfather very much, and he her. And now there was a new generation of the family to love.
I was deeply stuck not only by the warmth of the scene, but also how it so poignantly and neatly expressed the entire cycle of life. I have had a lot of “big” questions as I work with my arm and wait for it to heal. Yet, somehow what I witnessed today explained everything. It also gave me the courage to continue my efforts to transform my thinking as I enter the early stages of my own aging.
Love,
Anne
It has been several months since I started physical therapy for my arm. The Japanese take a gentle approach, which means extended time for rehabilitation. I like my therapist a lot and the hospital is very pleasant. However, I am finding this long, ongoing process has become rather tedious.
Today, though, as I approached the entrance to the hospital, I was greeted by something very unusual. Nurses were wheeling an ancient man in a bed outside. He was so old and frail that he seemed to be teetering on the edge between this life and the next. Despite his fragility, however, he was alert.
There, eagerly waiting for him was a lovely young mother, holding her newborn. “Grandfather, Grandfather, I want to introduce you to my baby,” she said, as she held her swaddled infant up for this great-great grandfather to see.
The old man slowly lifted his stick-like arms and touched the cheeks of the wide-eyed baby. “Ah, ah,” he kept repeating. Love and joy radiated everywhere around them. It was obvious the new mother loved her (great) grandfather very much, and he her. And now there was a new generation of the family to love.
I was deeply stuck not only by the warmth of the scene, but also how it so poignantly and neatly expressed the entire cycle of life. I have had a lot of “big” questions as I work with my arm and wait for it to heal. Yet, somehow what I witnessed today explained everything. It also gave me the courage to continue my efforts to transform my thinking as I enter the early stages of my own aging.
Love,
Anne
