Dear Paula,

And well you should be. You have plenty to be grateful for, Paula. Besides the obvious, your food, shelter, and job… you have a family, friends, and hope. That, my dear, is precious.

It is fascinating that with age comes a kind of wisdom, born more from experience, than intelligence. Also, a particular compassion. I found that myself.

At about your age, come to think of it.

Your Grandfather and I had been married for a little over a decade, and it was the late 50’s.

I guess your Mother was around 10 years old.

It was at that same time I was Menopausal if one can imagine. Having your Mother so late in life, I went from Motherhood to Menopause within a decade of one another.

But I kept myself busy, and adjusting my schedule, my daily tasks, and found in time a certain silencing of the mind. The fears of youth, gone. The settling into life begins. A comfortable chair like part of life, I think.

We are not on display, and one finally realizes we never were, if you’re honest with yourself. At this point, you finally recognize that people are not paying as much attention to the details; not like you are. So you can let go a little to the grip you have on yourself.

And be grateful. Be ever so grateful. I know, for me it was always the starving kids in Biafra. Still, there are starving kids, little has changed but the faces and the names.

I was always so on top of all the news. As Linda told you, piles of magazines all over. Always something to read lying about. One just never knows when you may have the impulse to learn something new.

It is amusing you never thought of me as a feminist, and I suppose that’s my fault. I never did use the word, but at the heart of everything was that I wanted you to know a different and improved world. A world of more equality, and compassion.

Yet, I see there is still some way to go.

Our relations to the south are most certainly in a bit of a quagmire. Where racism and greed prosper, where power and the price we all pay for cheap goods becomes a tough pill to swallow.

So just be grateful you live where you do.

You know me, I have my opinion, but I always said…”if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all“. So I will leave it there.

We must not lord it over them, it’s not like we don’t have our own problems. Just different ones.

You are most correct, I do like that Chopra quote. Definitely something I believe is important.

“In the midst of crisis, you keep your values.”
– Deepak Chopra, heard on PBS program Finding Your Roots

Now, for that cold, mustard pack and steam. That will clear it right up. Wash your hands, go get yourself some good chicken soup, and you’ll be good as new in days.

Love,
Grandma