remember your creator. . .

So,  we hung out with Luke and Gabrielle and the grandchildren on New Year's Eve-

we ate chicken caldo, spicy and  good, with avacado chunks, lime slices, and fresh cheese-crumbly and salty like I remember in Mexico. 

We dropped in on the neighborhood New Year's party.  

I had a long conversation with a neighbor- a talk that still rumbles around inside me.

And John met a neighbor, a man who graduated from high school the same year he did and who went to boot camp in San Diego the same year-

My husband asked the neighbor, "What kind of New Year's celebration do you think goes on in heaven?  like this. . .? or maybe like this. . . ?"

 "I don't know, I don't like to talk about that!" concluded the neighbor.

Then we drove home to our own neighborhood--fire works like crazy, smoky streets and gun shots.

You know you're old when you fall asleep before midnight in a war zone (or party zone).

I've been thinking about King Solomon's description of human aging in Ecclesiastes.
 
 Remember  your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say,  "I have no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain. . .in the days when the strong men are bent and the grinders cease. . .

Aye. . .grim, grim!


Last month John accompanied our friend Marguerite on her first train ride-she's 97!
for Marguerite, the sun and light are darkened- I love how she still takes pleasure in her days.
 "I love to hear the train whistle and this time it's coming to take me!" she exclaimed.
Soul! Remember your Creator in the days of your youth (and in your season of old age)-in 2013.