20190129 – Tuesday – Kingdom come

20190129 – Tuesday – Brighton again.

I thought about my day at Brighton Beach yesterday, and how much I enjoyed it, so this morning I decided to bypass the Inc Cafe at Brighton Dunes and go on to Jetty Road and the Brighton Hotel.

I parked in the disabled carpark right on the seafront beside the memorial arch there and sat for a few moments soaking up the beautiful view of the ocean.

The weather today was almost identical to that of yesterday, and yet the ocean looked different.

If I were to take a photo of the ocean on every day of the year, the picture I took would be in some way, different.

The ocean fills me with joy in all of its shades and the sheer wonder of it makes me feel happy and at peace.

I walked across the road to the Brighton Hotel, but found that I was too early for the restaurant there.

So I crossed Jetty Road to the cafes there which were beginning to bustle, but then I noticed that the first cafe in Jetty Road didn’t open until 9 am in the morning, so  I should be able to sit there and eat my breakfast.

I sat down at one of the tables in front of this shop where there was conveniently a chair located and got out all my “things,” my iPad and my iPhone, and of course my little “breakfast esky.”

All was perfection in my small world.

Even the table was in the shade so there was no glare on my iPad screen.

I ate my breakfast with relish. A tin of fish, mushroom, tomato, celery, strawberries, grapes, and macadamias. No avocado today, I had run out of these yesterday and would need to shop today, and I wrote up my diary.

I thought about Selena and Kate and decided to text Selena and tell her that I would like to take up her offer of visiting Bremer farm again, maybe on Wednesday 30th.

Selena texted me back and said that Wednesday would be good.

I thought about my “now” life and thought about my friends. 

They were a diverse group older, and I thought about the facts that few of those friends were of my own age. Most of them were 20 years and more younger than me.

I also thought about how the friends I have of my own age seem to be “dropping off of the tree,” at a very rapid rate.

I mused that as one gets older, what friends one does have, become somehow further “spaced apart.”

I have to keep them all in mind, and make sure I keep in contact with them.

They are no longer just “there.”

Family, for instance.

Well in my case they are all spread over the various States of Australia, and so to see them, it is necessary to keep in touch with them, by Messenger or Whatsapp, and make trips to visit them interstate.

This of course is difficult when they are in Melbourne or Perth or Darwin.

It is easier to keep in touch with my one Adelaide daughter, but her life is busy, because she married late and now is almost in her 50s and yet has 2 young children. And it takes a lot of energy to have children in one’s 40’s I have observed.

So my “every day” friends are not closely involved in my life, as the friends of my early years were.

Which brings me back to my initial statement, “I have to keep them in mind” and make sure that I keep the contact going.

And if health is poor, even that becomes more and more difficult.

So “health” and “closeness” are closely correlated.

How blessed are those who have a married partner, someone to commune with on a daily basis.

Someone to drink coffee with, whenever, someone to go for a drive with, at a moments notice.

Yes, but even that requires the kind of easy community that often does not occur within a marriage.

Whilst ones children are young, time is occupied “bringing them up.” 

But when they are grown, often a married couple confront each other as strangers, and so they find themselves alone, in tandem!

And then there are those rarities, those married couples who love each other to distraction, right into their 80s and 90s.

How wonderful that must be.

And so, for those of us who are not in that happy position, and find themselves single and alone in their 80s, then friends must be maintained.

The Bible gives the solution, “He that hath friends must show himself friendly,” or failing that, to grow to enjoy one’s OWN company.

And that is what I do for those “in between times” when I am unable to rouse any of my friends to join me in my activities.

I have learned to ENJOY my own company.

And the way I have found to do this is to PRAISE God for his bounty and the beauty of His NATURE.

And most of all, to look for a DAY in which all sorrow and sighing will be no more.

When we will all “rise up on eagles” wings and all the aches and pains and decay will be a thing of the past.

And I believe that such a day is coming SOON.

And I for one, can’t wait!