As I get older, there are many times when I realize that I have just gained some priceless insight into the life experiences that my parents endured. Then I wish for just five minutes to add yet another line item to the apology that I owe them for scoffing at their challenges and frustrations. They were what I considered very little things, but now, I am viewing them from the other side of the coin. The aches and pains that they had or the loss of
Each time this has occurred in the past few years, I have looked up and mutter another “I’m sorry.” Still, I always felt that there should be more I could say, that I should say. But they are long gone and so are those earthly challenges and annoyances. Maybe I should just be thankful for that and not continue to selfishly seek their forgiveness? Finally, that simple change in perspective provided me with another lesson.
The realization that I am now on “the other side” of these little senior moments made me realize that I too would be getting THAT look and the eye rolls more and more often from my sons. The epiphany here is that I have just been reminded that I didn’t understand my parents’ complaints any better than the boys will understand mine. But I need to take the lesson from Mom and Dad and just let the smirk and grumbles roll right past me. I now know that in a few decades, the boys’ journey will turn off of the smoothly paved road and they will experience these same bumps and potholes, and it will be their children with the pained expressions and the huge sighs. In a strange way, I have come to embrace this as a part of the circle of life and all that we pass on to the next generation.