While walking in the park a few years ago I passed an elderly gentleman, a friend of mine, who seemed to be walking a tad slowly and pensively, “A penny for your thoughts?” I asked.
“I think I’m getting old!” he said sadly, and at that time his daughter passed him by, walking briskly, smiling at her dad as she walked past.
“But there’s a lot of good memories that you have!” I said.
“Yes!” he agreed.
“And a lot of good things that have happened over the years you have to be thankful for!”
“Yes,” he agreed again, “Though I think my eyes are getting weaker!”
“But your remembrances of those good things should make you thankful!” I stubbornly continued saying, wondering what I could tell him, that would stop him from thinking too much about his age or disabilities.
We stopped for awhile and I told him of something I’d just read, “Did you know that the English word "thanks" comes from the same root as the word "think"? And they not only share a similar background, they are related in another way. It seems the more we think, the more we thank.”
My old friend looked at me, his eyes interested in what I was saying, “I’m going to tell you of a woman who visited her eye doctor,” I said, “This lady complained to her ophthalmologist that as she grew older, her eyesight was getting worse. He examined her eyes and could not be encouraging about the future of her eyesight.”
“But to his surprise, she did not seem to be upset. She told him all she was grateful for: her deceased husband; her children and their families; her friends; the many years she had enjoyed upon this earth; her vast library of memories. She had done a great deal of thinking about these things.”
"My eyesight is getting worse," she summarized, "but I'm not going to fret over that."
Her doctor later made this observation: "Her eyesight is poor, but her vision is better than most people!"
She clearly saw what many never see. which was all the good in her life.
And she was content.
The old man had a twinkle in his eyes now as he looked at me and said, “I understand Bob, when we take less time to think, and make more time to thank, we see more clearly!”
“Yes,” I said, “thankfulness is a great way to improve our vision!”
I left the old man and continued my faster paced walk. His daughter walked by and asked, “What did you do to me dad, there’s a spring in his walk?”
I laughed as I whispered, “he’s stopped thinking..!”
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
