Oh the simpler times...

On Friday I spent a little time with this 95 year old women named Stella. We were driving up to Mission Carmichael Rehabilitation Center to see her friend, and mine, Evelyn. On the way back, she started telling us that the next day (yesterday), marked her 77th wedding anniversary. WOW! She told us all about that day, and the party they had out at the lake with all of their loved ones. It was really sweet. But the thing that struck me the most, was, that she told us, that at barely 18 years old, she liked the guy,... ok..,but was really getting married to get out of her house. ( She apparently didn't have a great home life) But she said that their relationship grew into a deeper love than she could have ever imagined. She said they had"quite the affair". And now, as an old women, she had nothing but sweet memories.

This caused me to reflect on a lot of the problems that people have today. How there are so many couples that truly love each other, at least in the beginning, and still cant manage to make it work. A luxury that Stella didn't have, yet a very different outcome. I know that it all comes down to selfishness, or selflessness, depending on how you want to look at it! And it seems so simple...JUST STOP BEING SELFISH...RIGHT? That's what its all about, learning to put someone else's needs and desires above your own. The funny thing about it, is that when you do this, you are so much happier yourself. I know that at the times when I am serving someone else, and not stressing out about myself, I not only feel better about the problems that I have, but they usually diminish anyway.

I know that I cant change the way that people are today...but, I really feel like everyone would benefit from spending an hour in the car with a senior citizen. They really have some good insight. Times may have been simpler, but the principals don't change...or at least they shouldn't.

Happy Anniversary, Stella!

Ok...I'll get off my soap box now.