I have an older person in my life that is dealing with a situation that would be laughable, if it weren’t actually quite sad.

She lives in a senior living community and recently was part of a birthday celebration, where she presented the 90-year-old birthday girl with a card containing a joke. Now, I thought the joke was funny, but unfortunately it was not taken as such by the recipient. She found it unforgivably offensive, as it turns out.

Of course, the one thing we humans are all conditioned to do in such situations is to apologize when we have offended someone. And that is what happened in this situation - the card giver took responsibility and apologized right away. 

Alas, it didn’t end there. And it was because of the other human frailty we all share - righteous indignation, and its companion desire to make others hurt for wronging us. Instead of receiving absolution from her friend, the card giver appears to have earned a double-page spread in the Burn Book. She’s been uninvited to group gatherings, ghosted on texts, and outright snubbed by this other woman and her circle of friends.

Ouch.

I found this situation kind of bizarre. After all, when you get to age 90, you don’t have many years left on this Earth. So, in my thinking, I can’t imagine spending that precious little time nursing petty grievances.

And yet, I can’t point fingers. Because there have been so many times in my life that I did just that. And what if my life had been cut short after one of my righteous rants? I’d have spent my precious last moments in anger and grief.

I’m very glad to have made the choice several years ago to show up with kindness and compassion. It started with giving myself those graces each day, and it has spilled over into every area of my life. And when I fail to live up to my own standard, I atone for it. And when others disappoint me, I forgive.

After all, we all share this journey of humanness. Who among us is doing it perfectly? 

If tomorrow should happen to be my last day here, I can say I lived and loved well.

May you laugh and love much this day, and always. (And remember that jokes are meant to be funny!). 😄 

Gayle