Old and Young

This is my kinda-sorta grandma. Don't you love those kinda-sorta relatives that take just a little too much effort to explain just exactly how you came to be family? Yeah, me too. 

This picture sparked a thought I've been having over the past year. The thought is: How most of society  worships the young and not the old. The wisdom of living for 50 years+ is no longer desirable to us, but rather the carelessness of youth is. I am in a nursing school program (4 months to go BY THE WAY!!!) and there are women from 22-55 years old in the program and it is very evident to me who everyone wants to be like... everyone wants to be like the 20-somethings who "don't care" about grades, dignity, or responsibility. I watch older moms try and fit in with the youngsters by telling their weekend party stories and talking about the latest gossip and honestly, it is not appealing. 

I am only 24 and cannot say exactly what it feels like to be "old and wise", but I do know that as I have aged I have learned from mistakes of carelessness and irresponsibility and I do not desire to be that way anymore. I do not want to be like my younger peers... I want to be like my great aunt. Full of love, wisdom, graciousness, and full of desire to CARE about something or someone. 

I want to talk to women who have made mistakes in their life and have learned from them. I want to talk to women who care so deeply about their children that they grow in wisdom to care for them in the best way. I want to hear women's stories about how they made it through a hard time. I want to hear from women that want to give their knowledge to me.

 I want to cherish the elderly. I want to cherish their wisdom. 

Youthful days full of youthful desires are meaningless to me when compared to the beauty of an older woman with a lifetime of knowledge.