Do I Belong With These Old People?
—Grace & Truth Linkup
I drive into the parking lot of my doctor’s office on Monday morning. I’m disturbed there are so many cars already here.
I thought I’d be first. Or close to it anyway.
But at 6:52 a.m., I’m already 5th in line to get bloodwork done.
I take my place in line outside the door that won’t open until 7 a.m. sharp.
Why is everyone here so old? I look at the four people in front of me. One older woman is sharply dressed with her picture-perfect wig. She chats with the other older woman about her neighborhood. The first man in line, also older, keeps checking his watch, obviously in a hurry. The second man looks more like me, dressed in sweatpants and flip flops, caring little about his morning outfit.
The nurse opens the door at 7 and we all sign in, all here for fasting bloodwork, getting it over with early so we can go home and eat breakfast by 8.
Yes, these older people had my same idea.
As we wait our turn in the waiting room, more older people file in. The extras have to sit in the overflow pediatric waiting room. I smile as they sit around the toys, noticing the juxtaposition of their age with their surroundings.
I remember back to when I was much younger. As the third of four children, I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t always surrounded by other people, waiting my turn for the next thing to happen.
In one of the few photos I have as a child, I’m surprised to find a picture of just me. I was maybe 8 years old in this photo (I think there are 8 candles here?). My sweet mother must have hung the balloons on the ceiling, baked and decorated my birthday cake.
The next birthday photo I have is at age 10 (judging by the calendar on the wall). My next door neighbors Anita and Julie are here to celebrate with me.
My thoughts are interrupted when the nurse calls my name. It’s finally my turn for the blood draw.
I hope she’ll be quick. I need to get home to babysit two little boys ages 1 and 4 coming to my house this morning. Their mom has her own doctor’s appointment today.
Because life is always birthing itself. Once I was young. Once I had young children.
But now I’m older.
I suppose I do belong in this crowd of older people after all. I’ve earned my spot. I’ve put in my time. We may all be in a waiting room, but we’re not just waiting to die. And neither are we waiting to live.
We’re doing both, all the time, living and dying, caught somewhere between young and old, yet still finding our place in the circle of life.
Are you still finding your place secure in the circle of life, whether young or old?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Grace & Truth Featured Post
This post by Lois is what prompted me to look back to old photos of my own. Lois writes about reframing a few memories after an older photo resurfaces that she has never seen.
“Getting older—or losing loved ones who have been around our entire lives—hands us the opportunity to look at life from perspectives other than our own. To reframe a few memories, like I did after I found the picture of me and my dad.”
Read all of Lois’s post here at her blog, then add your own blog posts below.
“The Unexpected Blessing of a Newly Surfaced Photo”
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‘We’re doing both, all the time, living and dying, caught somewhere between young and old, yet still finding our place in the circle of life.’
I’ve been wrestling with this reality in recent months, Lisa. Your words say it oh so well.
Ah, yes, how quickly age creeps up while we’re living life. We can often wonder how we got here. It’s a reminder not to take any moment for granted and to steward the time since we are keenly aware we have less of it than we once did.
Awww, such cute pics of you, Lisa. 🙂 It seems the older I get, the faster time speeds by and the more out of place I feel in this world as so much is changing. But yes, we are all still in the circle of life. God still has a purpose for us as long as we’re here, right? Love and blessings of God’s sufficient grace to you!
I am finding I like it with all the old people 🙂 They understand me better! This is so true >> “We’re doing both, all the time, living and dying, caught somewhere between young and old, yet still finding our place in the circle of life.” As long as we are drawing breath, God still has purpose for us. Blessings, old friend! 🙂
It is hard to think that I’m “older,” by most definitions. As Pam said, I sometimes wonder how that happened. But I love the idea that we’re not just marking time. We’re still living and God still has a purpose for us.
Love this! I often take out my memories, dust them off, and re-live them. But as you said, I’m not done yet. And I’m not waiting to live.
You know this is really contemplative. Thanks for getting me thinking. I love talking to elderly people, you never know if your their only friendly contact for them for the day. I can listern to stories over and over. Old age is honored in the Bible, I’m 51 and stopped dying my hair, and I love the salt & pepper. It’s weird I thought I’d be depressed when I turned 50 but I wasn’t, and I thought the same thing when I turned 51, it didn’t happen then either. I didn’t think I would be, but right now, I’m okay with getting older. Lisa, this is such a great message.
Your title caught my attention because I’ve asked myself similar questions numerous times. I have always felt a great deal of respect for older people but at some point when I went to give my seat to an older person, I realized I was one! LOL I’m still shocked at times. But I love how you tied it all back to waiting but waiting with purpose. I pray that God will continue to use my husband and me for many years to come. Right now we are leading a marriage retreat and we are so thankful to have that purpose in our lives. I don’t know how long God will allow us to do things like this but we’re so grateful that He is at least for this season and we don’t want to take it for granted.
My breakdancing days are long gone, but I’m still no good at gauging someone’s age. I was describing a colleague at my new job to my wife Sara as “an old bloke” — turns out he is five years younger than she is. I still have just three age categories:
– Kids
– People roughly the same age as me
– Grown ups
I love older people! When I was in college, I went to the Sunday School with the members in their 70s and 80s. I remember one lady sharing about the circuit riders that would come through every 3-4 months and meet with them under the tree and answer their questions about faith. Slowly but surely, I’m inching towards their age, but I still have a little bit further to travel down this road called life. IMM#3&5
Lisa, this post shows you have a key characteristic for a vibrant growing-older person, which is a good sense of humor! It reminds me of something I saw recently in a job listing … in the section about all the things the company doesn’t discriminate against, it listed age and then added “(40 and over). ” I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be annoyed!!
Thanks for sharing my post … I’m glad it prompted you to get out your own batch of old photos. And I also notice we had similar hairstyles around the age of seven or eight. 🙂
Yes I feel very much like I’m in a waiting room lately, only I’m not sure what I’m waiting for. I guess I’m waiting to find my place and purpose in new surrounding and I don’t even know whether I should sit and be patient or if I need to find whoever’s in charge of this space in life and let them know I’m still waiting. Very relatable post, thanks for putting words to it! Visiting from IMM#26
This is great. I’ll be 49 this year and I will admit that the idea of 50 is starting to bother me more than is reasonable