Wisdom from the young and the old, and in between …

Teachers at an elementary school gave their Grade 2 students the first half of popular sayings and asked them to complete them.

They’re old in today’s rush, rush world since they came from an old Rotarian magazine of October 1999 — though they’re new in one way, they didn’t come over the internet.

Don’t count your chickens — before you cook them.

Don’t put all your eggs — in the microwave.

All’s fair — in hockey.

If at first you don’t succeed — go play.

People who live in glass houses — better not take off their clothes.

Our world media focuses on evildoers so much it’s easy to forget the wonderful world of the young and the old, and their affinity with one another. 

Grandparents and grandchildren click, and I wonder if it isn’t simplicity itself? Both groups can strip away the chrome and glitter of the material world, and look at it through eyes of simplicity.

Kids know, and take pleasure in the moment, licking an ice cream cone, smelling a flower, hugging a friend, kissing Mom and Dad goodnight, yet, somewhere along the trail to adulthood, we often let the world gloss over simplicity as if it were beneath us.

“Growing up,” is one cover we put on it, “adulthood” is another, and then when we’re at the other end, like dormant seeds in the earth, if we let them, the magic of those moments blossom again.

Old George’s story came from an old friend. It came through the old friend network, on the ‘net.

It came to him from an old friend, who’d received it from an old friend, and so it’s moving around the world, pleasuring most, although likely annoying the cynics.

George, 92-years-old, is a creature of habit, and a proud man. By 8 a.m., he’s fully dressed looking as if he just stepped from the pages of an O.F. Fashion magazine even though he is legally blind.

His wife of 70 years had died, and he waited for hours in the lobby of his new home, a nursing home, as we like to call them.

He greeted the nurse who finally came with a big smile, and as he manoeuvered his walker to the elevator, she began describing his room.

“I love it,” he said with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old with a new puppy.

“Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.”

“That has nothing to do with it,” he replied. “Happiness is something you decide ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on the furniture arrangement. It’s how I arrange my mind. I’ve already decided to love it.

“It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

“Each day is a gift, and, as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away. Just for this time in my life.

“Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!  I’m still depositing.”

“I use five simple rules to be happy:

1) Free your heart from hatred;

2) Free your mind from worries;

3) Live simply;

4) Give more;

5) Expect less”

Some would call it hokey, eh? Well a tip of the hat to hokey. It seems to me it’s the same as the April sunshine we’ve been soaking in the past week or so. It sure puts everybody in a good mood.

Oh, and about simplicity, try this one on, see whom it fits: “All the truly deep people have at the core of their being the genius to be simple, or to know how to seek simplicity.

“The inner and outer aspects of their lives match; there is something transparent about them.

“They may keep the secret of this existence in a private preserve, but they are so uncluttered by any self-importance within and so unthreatened from without that they have what one philosopher called a certain ‘availability;’ they are ready to be at the disposal of others.”

And a Happy Easter 2 U 2.