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April Fools, Not

I am waking up today in celebration of my brother's 60th year of birth.  Once again, I ponder, how can that really be true?  How did we arrive so quickly to this time in life?  I have no recourse to hold back time now, especially since both of my brothers are now living in their 60th decade!  That's just wrong even to think about, let alone write it down  . . . 

It is like having an April Fools joke played on you everyday.  I understand my Dad much better as he use to say to me; inside he was so much younger and stronger than how he appeared in person.  I hear that now from Mom Ruth, who being 93 years young, is not desiring death but rather wanting to live so much more.  It has to be the paradox of life . . . 

As a child, you think you will never grow up.  Time seems to drag so slowly.  Then you finally are "grown up" and you long for those former days of carefree living, when somebody else managed the hard stuff of life.  Yet, you made it through those years, hopefully gaining wisdom from your foolish mistakes.  You seemed ready to move into the "meaningful decades" of life in which you could achieve your dreams.  But alas, they too seemed to fly by, and left you still often chasing the unachievable . . . April Fools!

But maybe that's the hidden blessing in life, that even ourselves, do not have to be what we appear to be.  Maybe that's the joy and humor in life that in spite of ourselves, our weakness and failures, there is a hidden treasure within that grows more beautiful and enduring with age.  I think it is that very image of God within us that strives toward life.  After all, it is here that we have the opportunity to begin our journey into eternal life.   


So how can I not be grateful?  I'm thankful for these senior years I share with my brothers, and especially thankful that they forge the territory before me!  Obviously, the older you become the more you appreciate life and the times you have had with one another.  Relationships become your desire and time spent with one another becomes your aim.  Yes, the joke is on us, but for those who come behind, it too will play out on you . . . April Fools, Not!


 

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