Old Person

As I view the wrinkles in your face,
I see so very many gifts of grace!
As I, your very countenance, behold,
I try to count the stories it's to hold!

As you sit there, just across from me,
I do not see your age, but history!
The same, I love and so appreciate;
and pray I might possess a gift so great!

As I hear you, deliberate and slow,
I treasure all the volumes that you know
and wonder just how many miss so much--
blinded as you reach for just a touch?

There is an old man in the corner of that café.  He is enjoying coffee and watching, all alone...
There is an old lady on that bench at the mall.  She is enjoying watching the people...but secretly hoping someone will sit down and talk with her...
There is a couple in that park over there.  They go there to see the children, because their own children have become so busy that they must make appointments to see them.
All of these people contain wisdom and stories available nowhere else. 
Does anyone have time to listen? 
That which they contain is not available on television.
That which they contain is not available on the Internet.
That which they possess is availed nowhere else because it is inside them.  It IS them.  It is experience.  And the only way to know what they possess is to get to know them.
Leave your smartphone in the car and go get to know them.  You will thank me later.
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