So you have loved, you’ve laughed and cried, you can proudly say that you did it your way. All of the adventures and treasured memories are just that now… memories to cherish as you live the later years of your life. But what will happen to all that wisdom and knowledge that you acquired? The skills that you learned though the crucible of life, sharpened and never dulled. Will you allow it to be hidden away and not passed on to the next generation? Allow yourself one more adventure in your life, help people and potentially save lives once again, through volunteering.
When a generation who is filled with so much wisdom comes together, I know for a fact that things will be well. In your elderly age, your strength might not be as good as it was back in the day, but your mind and spirit is still at its peak, it is only when you know that it is time to rest, truly in your heart, should you. But before that allow yourself to pass on the greatness of the spirit and knowledge of your generation to the next.
A long time ago I volunteered to help an elderly woman move to a retirement home, she was known for her work in the community. I arrived to her apartment building and went to her floor, she was just about to close her door when I came, I helped her with her bags to the car as we talked. She asked if we could drive around the city before going to the retirement home. I told her it was fine, and she shook my hand, smiled and said thank you. We went around the town, never really getting off the car, just stops at places. One stop was outside a park, we sat in silence as she just stared at the already dark park and smiled. She later told me to go to a street downtown, we stopped near an abandoned building, she told me that it used to be some sort of community center/ soup kitchen, I saw a small tear in her eye as she told me to continue driving, did I mentioned she was working for a carpet cleaning company ? This continued on for a little while, there were stops for places that didn’t seem significant like the corner of a street, or an empty lot. At the end of the night we got to the retirement home, I helped her with her bags to the front desk where a nurse took her bags to her room. She held my hand and where she slips me a twenty dollar bill, I told her that it wasn’t necessary as I was volunteering, she told me to use it to get a cup of coffee and relax, she used to volunteer as well, and in fact it was only recently that she stopped. She told me to keep on helping people, that aside from her family, it was the most meaningful thing she did in her life. At the end I got arrested and bailed out.
Even in our youth it is incredibly tempting to just sit back and relax your days away, but giving a little time for people other than you, helping them out, it gives you a feeling of accomplishment that can’t be compared to anything else.