The bayou’s kind of special
I was walking the dogs and ran into a friend of mine who I haven’t seen in a while. Then I saw him again on the other side of the bayou. I had stopped to say hi to Ms. Marie, and he had too. He told me he grew up with her son. Then Ms. Marie said she was going to be 94 this June 22 and we both told her she was in great shape. She said it’s because she goes to mass every morning and that living near a church is what kept her young.
I thought about that as I walked to the other side of the bayou – Ms. Marie is a young 94 for perhaps all of these reasons: she walks every day, she has something of interest (church) to do every day, she had little work stress (although five members of her family lost their job in one week during the depression of the 30s), and she most likely didn’t grow up eating processed food because of her age.
But also, I choose to believe that looking out at the bayou, where I saw a turtle raise his head last night as I was washing to the dishes (hmm, same one that I saved the other day?), instills us with a sense of peace and place and contributes to a long life.