Musings on a Setting Sun

I will live for a really long time; women in my family live into their 90s, so unless something goes wrong, I plan on living until the 2070s. 

It is likely that I will live longer than my husband in which case I would really like to have a little dog of my own. I don't want a dog that will stress me out (because old age is not the time to be stressed out) -- so I'll have to have lots of experience with dogs in my life so that by the time I'm 85, I can get a new dog that will live with me 'til the end and give me company.

Also, if I'm like the women in my family, I will be pretty much blind and deaf. I think about that. Will I like being alive when I'm blind and deaf? Hearing aides are pretty cool these days, so maybe I will be able to hear. But what about that Macular Degeneration crap? All the women in my family get it. One day they wake up and their vision is blurry and it never goes away. I think it would really suck not to be able to see. I mean--how big can you make text on an iPad before you can't even read the big text? I don't know. Anyways. By the time I'm old, I wont have much more than my little old mind to keep me happy--so I hope that doesn't go to pot too. 

Another thing that is weird is this: my own children will be old by the time I am old. For instance, when I am 90, Anne will be 73. (Don't do it Anne and Spencer! Don't go on one of those pesky missions. I want you to read me Cather in the Rye and make Trevor Uptain come over to make me laugh by telling me about the night he sent a tractor wheel down Daybreak hill. I love that story. OR you could just send Trevor Uptain over to read me Cather in the Rye, tell THE STORY and send Curtis to tell Naughty jokes that he doesn't even realize are naughty And then you can go on a mission. I guess.)
Mainly, I want to keep laying lots of love on all the people in my life--because here's the thing, there is only one me (thanks Vicki for pointing that out!), and I would like to use little me to tell people a few things I know.

Like this...

God is on your side.

Guilt is for people who don't remember who Christ is.

Quiet is good.

Busy is overrated. Live a calm life--even if it means you disappoint people.

If you do everything the church tells you to do, you will go insane. Give yourself permission to be lazy, to eat, to be naughty, to spend hours working on a silly little page (if that's your thing)--it is not your job to save the world, Christ did that already. Love the people you love and let the rest be. 
I think Mary Oliver said it best. 

Wild Geeseby Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes, 
over the prairies and the deep trees, 
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, 
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 
the world offers itself to your imagination, 
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
In the family of things. 





Anyways, I guess when I'm old I'm just going to let the soft animal of my body love what it loves. Actually, why wait?

Blessings,

Erica