Okay, so at the Autumn Leaf Festival this year a parrot climbed up my arm, and when he got to my ear, he tried to steal my earring. When Anny, who was standing behind me, took a picture, you could see the lady that owned the parrot laughing and my sister laughing too. The parrot-lady rescued me and my ear right after Anny took the picture, but she couldn’t rescue me from what I saw as I looked at the side of my own head in the photo Anny put on my facebook page. I really do have gray hair.
I forget constantly that I am not thirty anymore. I forget until I think that Anny is twenty-five, Dave and Jen have been married three years, my husband is retired, and even my dog is eighty-four in people years. Inside I am still a kid, amazed that a parrot could climb my arm, still excited to go to Autumn Leaf Festival.
Even though my mom and dad aren’t there anymore, and this year I was the oldest old lady in the crowd at the Kroh curb as Randy Griffith dubbed it. I sat in the lawn chair and my kids tossed candy back to me from the parade the way I did with my mom since forever.
Along with gray hair, my knees creak, and we won’t even talk about what is saggy or wrinkled. But you know what I learned from that parrot? I might have to age, but I don’t have to get old. I’m the old lady now, but it is still a blast just as it was when I was four or ten, or waving from a float, or riding Silver with the 4H at the end of many parades.
Amen!!
ReplyDelete