Somehow, even though aging is the natural progression of life, when we said yes, we didn’t actually expect to get old like our parents. Years turned into photo albums and senior discounts. Only yesterday we were kids holding hands while walking the Lake Superior shoreline in Michigan, and the next thing we knew we were in rocking chairs side by side on our Tennessee porch waiting for our Social Security checks. Karam and Katari’s record both encourages us and scares us. We are taken aback that the years have flown by. My husband, Les, and I are amazed that we have survived each other, since we both are a bit much. One of my biggest yeses was on my wedding day fifty-one years ago July. I wonder, after the first seventy years did he still remember to take out the garbage and did she still gripe about his manners? As I write this, that’s one of the longest recorded marriages. Karam and Kartari Chand were married for eighty-eight years and thirty-three days. Yes is powerful, permissive, and pleasing… most of the time. Yes is a seal of approval, an Enter Here sign, a “permission granted” document. Yes can be a skylight for the soul, it can aerate our attitudes, and it can be a bridge over misunderstandings. You smiled, didn’t you? Yes has its roots in happy.
Just saying yes can make us and others smile. cummingsĭon’t you love the word yes? It’s so joyful and cooperative, it’s such a door opener.
I thank You God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. - e.