An Invincible Summer - A Woman's Journey

Our dear friend Nancy turned 100 a few weeks ago. Her daughter arranged for a lovely party at the local zoo that Nancy has generously supported through the years. She always has said she loves 4 legged creatures much more than 2. We flew down to Burbank Saturday morning and flew back home Monday. Quite a whirlwind trip.  Loads of longtime friends showed up to honor her and she was childlike in her delight at each face, many of them she had not seen in years. Part of the celebration included a performance by the students of The Teaching Zoo of Moorpark College . The entire party moved into a lecture hall, Nancy and her daughter sat front and center. The student handlers and their animals came in one by one. We learned about several different animals, their habitat, unique characteristics and how they are worked into the zoo program. I was not aware that porcupines are rodents. We were in a traditional lecture hall that rear seats loom high above the lecturer. The Boy Scout and ...

​Loving the things we still have in common, I hold them close to my heart, even as I watch you opening your hand to let them go. They aren’t necessary to continue to have a “we” but they are connective and familiar. If there is one thing many of us who are moving closer to, or deep within our “golden years”,  are holding on to is the familiar. Perhaps it is because little things are being taken away just by the act of aging. Chasing after you just as I did when you were first figuring out how to use those tiny, chubby feet or when you first started pedaling a bike, only now with the ever so slight feeling of bewilderment and the need to hurry, in place of the absolute joy mixed with nervousness at the inevitable falls. I will continue to fall behind because that is the nature of the life. Hopefully, you will slow down occasionally and look behind. What you will find is a deep and abiding love and whatever else that comes up. Sometimes it will be easy, sometimes not so much. I don’t...