When I used to give my grandmother a blessing that she should live to 120 she would give a gasp and exclaim "God forbid". I would get so upset at her. Why wouldn't she want to live that long?
I am convinced that most of us have this gnawing dilemma that we struggle with; we all wish we could live forever and yet at the same time worry that we would get bored with living or worse end up despising life. Yesterday the oldest living person died at the age of 116. Her name was Besse Cooper. She was a school teacher from Georgia. She was quoted as saying that her best years were when she was in her 80's! She loved to read and work in her garden. So much of life is spent trying to reach a certain plateau that we often forget that every day is a pleasure just to be alive. When we forget the joy of simply living then when we reach that point in life we wonder "now what?". If we learn to take pleasure in the moment, enjoy the here and now then when can never get bored with anything life has to offer us.
Besse had four children, eleven grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
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