Jane's Jottings

Have you noticed that lucky people have friends from different age groups?  I am quite convinced that we are gifted individuals from varied generations to help us learn about life, and to see our own life challenges from unique angles.  It sounds clichéd to say, but it really is a gift to have friends in an older age bracket.  This concept is the stuff that movies are made of, and the suggestion is very much based in reality.  

No doubt, there are older people who consider themselves blessed to have friends from younger generations than their own, and this is surely a compliment to those who are older.  The overarching benefit of having some older friends, though, is the access to valuable wisdom that is learned from experience and that older friends can impart to us without sounding sanctimonious.  Yes, by the time one is old enough to be a grandparent, one has also learned the best way to share useful information without irritating the target audience.  It is for this reason that most parents are not as successful at communicating with their progeny as grandparents are; parents of teenagers are still swirling in a big picture background of stress and finding balance.  It all has to do with seasons, reasons, time, patience, the sort of peaceful and reflective existence that gives one the ability to find just the right words to get an important message across. 

I already appreciated having some older friends in my 30’s, and that admiration grew in my 40’s. The respect I have for my senior friends has only grown stronger the longer I live on this earth (in this lifetime).  There is now an automatic recognition that older friends have been placed in my life to give me something valuable.  I know I must enjoy their company, their humor, their outlook on life as intensely as possible, and that I shall cherish their imparted wisdom ever after.