One day while I was sitting with Nan in Hollywood looking at old pictures, she taught me a basic but powerful lesson in life.
This was around the time of my Fathers heart attack and I was taking care of her, doing the stuff that he did… going down and reading her mail and stupid stuff around her house.
As we looked at pictures of her Family & friends, some who have passed on...
I remember thinking about all the things she must of witnessed and lived through over her lifetime. I remember I had been pretty down because of my Dad, so I asked her for some wisdom on how she dealt with the difficult times in her life….
She paused from showing me the picture book and looked at me for a few seconds,
I remember her eyes filled with tears...
(although her eyes did water a lot, I believe these were tears she held back, I never saw her cry).
She looked at me for a few good seconds.....
I waited for some mystical strength to be handed down to me......
As she looked in my eyes and her eyes watered,
all she could do was shrug,
and she looked at me still as if searching for an answer….
No answer, but still looking deep into my eyes...
She shrugged yet again,
this time with a sort of smile.
I think she may have wiped a tear from her eye,
but she did not say a word….
She could not verbally answer me.
What she told me the first time she shrugged was that life was difficult,
I saw some pain or sorrow in her eyes. I saw a tear.
When she smiled with the second shrug,
she let me know that life is also beautiful.
But either way...
you have to just deal with it,
she told me by her two seperate shrugs.
Most of us had a magnet Nan would make that read....
"Grin & Bear It"
Thank you, Nan, I Love you & miss you….
