THE TRUTH ABOUT AGE

 On the eve of Thanksgiving

This thought came to mind:

Age is just a number

Until it’s your age and

Decades keep flying by, at which

Time, your age has swiftly become

A very BIG number, indeed!

So—I stopped to ask myself:

How could it be that

My birthday is coming up, again, when

My last one was

Just a couple of months ago, at most?

I swear—they’re coming

Several times a year!

Though age is just

A number when

You’re turning 24

You’ll think of your age as

Incredulous—most especially

Once you find yourself

Somehow, only one year

Shy of 80!

I mean

How in tarnation

Did so many decades pass

So frigg’in fast???

Let’s consider

My precious mother, who’d

Enjoyed good health till

She turned 100

And as such

I’d planned to do

The same until

My plan went awry and

So we come to see that

Though we may

Truly have grown old

We do not feel

Old enough to

Wither and die

Not when, having had

Parents who’d excelled at

Loving life for as long and

Robustly as had been true of

My precious mom and

My beloved dad (both of whom had

Become two of my best friends)

That fact is one of

Many reasons why

I often give pause to

Feel my good fortune at

Having had parents who’d 

Loved me so thoroughly as to have

Gifted me with

The wherewithal to

Pass that treasured legacy onto

My three sons and they onto

Their children, as well

So—if Thanksgiving is a time of

Contemplating, creating and choosing

Family traditions, both

Old and new, then I feel

Grateful for the fact that

So many of our family’s

Festively treasured traditions

(Like several generations

Gathering, together, to

Roll out, stuff and fry

Potato Knishes in our kitchen)

Continue to come to fruition as

Our attitudes t

ransform work into

A hearty Knish Party, year after year

And though I have been

Relegated to smile

Straight from my heart while

Sitting on the couch, watching

My three sons

Passing our traditions onto

Our grandchildren who have

Come to see how much fun

Holiday preparations can be when

Adults raised with positive attitudes

Take the lead, I, who love our traditions

Have come to accept

Need for peaceful transition based in

My awareness of time to

Pass the baton while ‘kvelling’ with

Pride over our three sons’choices to

Retain whichever heartfelt traditions

They each decide to make their own

🙋🏻‍♀️❤️🍀🇺🇸Annie