Listen and Learn from your elders. One day I did and I will never forget it.
One day, many years ago, I met an old woman in the woods
who I only met for a moment, but I will never forget her.
For some reason, I embraced the encounter and think of it often
It was a crisp, Colorado mountain winter day and while my family and friends were skiing and swishing down the slopes I took the day off to rest.
By mid-afternoon, I felt better and took a walk in the nearby woods.
Snow crunched under my boots as I walked the trail and I passed only a few people coming and going.
An old woman dressed in a red parka, a black knit cap, with a small black backpack on her back gingerly navigated the trail with two ski poles at her side to help her balance.
We started a conversation.
Her accent told me she was not from the midwest of the U.S. but from a European nation. She told me her husband was a ski instructor and they came to the mountains each winter to live and ski.
She decided to take a walk that day.
It was a brief encounter, but she said a few words that I have carried with me my entire life.
“If you are having a bad day, don’t stress over it. Just lay your head on your pillow at the end of the day and let it all go. You will wake up the next morning and the world will look better.”
I wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or to me or if she was just feeling like spouting sage advice to young strangers she came upon in the woods, but she created a memory for me that I draw on from time to time.
If you think this way, each day is a clean slate and an opportunity to start over. And, "things are always better in the morning".
Why I remember this woman and this brief encounter, I am not sure, but I know it helps to listen and learn from your elders.
Sometimes, I wish I would have done more of that.
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