Thursday I spent the evening in a pride of Old Lions. The HP had a social gathering and it was wonderful! Sitting outdoors in a circle (isn't that what those prides do?). Plates of goodies spread on a nearby picnic table. A gentle breeze under a huge weeping birch. Oh, was that a willow tree?
There were 15 men, 14 wives, 1 widow and 2 single sisters in attendance. We had been with our son so we got there about 15 minutes late. They were taking orderly turns introducing themselves of where they were born etc. We were #5&6 out of the 32 in attendance. Those first few were sort of stating the facts. As twilight descended and people relaxed then the real deal came through and the stories started to emerge of incidents in their lives that made us laugh or grow somber but it was all a sharing of the heart. I love learning about people and what makes them tick.
The HP have one very young couple in their ranks. Aaron and Emma. relatively new to the Ward. He's 32, I think. their combined ages were still less than the average age of several of the men! So I guess he is a cub in with the grizzled looking older ones. They were the only ones in attendance that are still looking forward to increasing the size of their family. Everyone else is past that stage of life and are now ushering children off to college or counting number of grandchildren that are married and how many great-grandchildren they have!
I always refer to the HP Quorum as the Old Lions when Bishop and I talk. They are the current leadership and they are middle aged and still healthy and actively serving, handling the running of the Ward. And then there are the past leaders of Wards and Stakes that served in their younger years. The heart, the core, the ones that melt my heart are these true Old Lions. They are achy, shaky and yes, they are broken-breaky. They have lost some teeth, some hair, some hearing and some balance. They limp, they gimp and they struggle to walk sometimes. They hurt. Some hurt all the time. Gnarled fingers. White hair. No hair. They don't whine.
They laugh, tell tales that sometimes seem tall, they tease, they reminisce and remind each other of past shared events. ...Like a picnic table that fell over when 4 sisters sat on one side. ...Playing basketball and being so nervous, as coach, that he vomited. ...a sister's Father that wasn't a member yet and had callings for several months, until the Clerk asked him where he got baptized and he said he never had been! ...Stories of barking like a dog, on hands and knees, and Bishop is at door to welcome you to Ward!
...Stories of meeting spouses and lengths of marriages and numbers of children and grandchildren. ...Stories of deprivation during the depression, sadness of foster care as a child, death of children and how the Gospel gets everyone through everything.
Struggles and hardship and challenges have entered all their lives and yet they talk of the joy and gladness of living here in this Ward, in this beautiful area and knowing each other. They love each other as a Priesthood/brotherhood. Growing older, becoming wrinkled and wearing out but still hanging in there. Entrenched in the Gospel! What a group of stalwarts! Salt of the earth types.
They are kind and compassionate. A rarity in the majority of men. A peculiar group and I say that in the nicest way.
Life is so good when you have friends, isn't it? I treasure every person that was there!! And I treasure my own Old Lion!
This week I saw a picture of Terry when he was 21. Strong and straight and sure footed he stood. What an adorable young man he was. I loved him then and I love him now. Now he's a bit less strong perhaps and somewhat bent and telling me tonight, that the dark made him lose his balance so we need to hold on to each other but seeing him at the social, seeing him laugh with his peers, he is still that same adorable 21 year old in my eyes even if his hair glistens white in the moonlight.
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Any Wife or Husband
Let us be guests in one another's house
With deferential "No" and courteous "Yes";
Let us take care to hide our foolish moods
Behind a certain show of cheerfulness.
Let us avoid all sullen silences;
We should find fresh and sprightly things to say:
I must be fearful lest you find me dull,
And you must dread to bore me any way.
Let us knock gently at each other's heart,
Glad of a chance to look within--and yet
Let us remember that to force one's way
Is the unpardoned breach of etiquette.
So shall I be hostess- you, the host-
Until all need for entertainment ends;
We shall be lovers when the last door shuts,
But what is better still-we shall be friends.
--by Carol Haynes
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Thou shalt live together in love,
insomuch that thou shalt weep
for the loss of them that die.............
Doctrine & Covenants 42:45
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