I’m sure these hands have seen a lot over the years.
Maybe those fingernails were painted meticulously with the perfect shade of pink before a first date with the handsome lad that would become her late husband…
Maybe they spanked a couple of rambunctious little boys for getting dirty outside in their Sunday best…
Maybe they allowed the perfect, tiny finger of their first grand-baby to tightly wrap around their index finger that was bent from arthritis caused by working in the cotton mill…
Maybe they held the flag from her brave and handsome son’s casket that lost his life in the war far too soon…
I wonder what all these hands truly have seen in their 70 plus years. It makes me tear up as I watch her struggle to put paint on a canvas and paint within the pre-drawn lines. What I am sure feels like the blink of an eye, those hands were picking dandelions and making mud pies on a rainy afternoon.
We’ve all been through some stuff. Some more than others. Maybe you’ve been through more in 20 years that I’ve been through in my 39 years…we got to keep creating, though. Keep creating memories, opportunities and relationships. We must not focus on where all we have been but where we are going.
I kept telling her that she was doing a great job. “That is beautiful”, I would say.
She replied with, “Are you sure?”
“Yes ma’am, I am sure.”
Encourage someone today. Don’t wait until they are sitting in a memory care facility to tell someone, “great job”, “beautiful”, “keep going”, “finish what you started”. Then it will be too late because they aren’t going to remember it a few seconds later. Tell them today. Make an impact in someone’s life right now. Tomorrow is too late.
For that, “yes ma’am, I am sure.”
