Aging Relationships

Getting old provides all manner of learning experiences whether you want them or not.  As of today I am choosing to learn and enjoy what has changed as I've gotten old.

When you are approaching eighty there are several givens; one is you are not going to fall in love and get married.  Can you imagine how old a guy would have to be to think marrying me was a good idea?  

However, when you do encounter someone, oh I don't know, handsome, fun, seemingly happy to spend a moment with you, that's a relationship.  By golly I have one of those. I know that on some days he'll be there, where I usually am, and he will smile, wave, hug and kiss me and ask if I am having a good day.  He's a busy guy with a busy job but he stops what he's doing to spend a minute with me. That's all there is but it is just wonderful.

The point of this is, relationships mean different things at different times in your life.  I have no family nearby.  I only know people with whom I have made it a practice to become friends with, or at least have conversations with.  Some of my new friends mostly speak a language I'm struggling like crazy to learn.  That's a pretty challenging relationship.

Some of them are entire families, like Jorge and Rosario Novoa and their boys who feed me fabulous food and take me to the Guacamaya Sanctuary and on family adventures.  Or like my folkloric family that includes Pedro and Celene, their four children, Laura, Goretti, Pedro Antonio and Pedro Alonzo (twins) and precious precious granddaughter Lia.  The faces of each and hugs that follow can brighten an otherwise ordinary day.  There are the numerous restaurant employees who call me by name, know that I sit at a table for one and stop to chat when traffic allows.  One of them even hollers "Sally" from his motorcycle on the way to work.

Then there are all the friends I made while volunteering at the Botanical Garden and my buddies on my block, Esther at Lavandaria, Mari and Fernando, my juice bar, Mo and Carla and their family, who saw me take an embarrassing tumble and checked on my injuries. Oh, and my Sunday for breakfast church buddies, I was invited once and now am a regular. Some of them live here year round and some go back and forth to the "North."

In other words, all my new relationships, are different from before and meaningful as ever.

Bottom line of all of this is my gratitude to all of them.  Gratitude for making me feel welcome, worth knowing, worth helping and, most of all, worth kissing.  It is a gift to remember that relationships can take a lot of forms and each deserves my gratitude.