BY GENE MONIN
Old barns are like old people
Barns were once the center of farm life and are vanishing as modern farming methods make them obsolete.
Have you noticed an old barn that looks its been around for a very long time?
It may have lost parts of its roof and leans as if it is hanging on by its fingernails before collapsing in a cloud of dust one day.
But look at its beauty of ages. You can’t buy wood like that and there is no stain that can match its color.
It took decades of wind, ice, sun, and storms to get to that lovely silvery grey shade and weatherbeaten texture.
Oh, what wonderful stories it could tell of the many children who played in there, of birth of many kinds of animals that first saw the light of day creeping through its cracks.
It could tell tales of the young men and women who sneaked up to its loft for fun and games.
How many families came and went as the old barn stood over the years?
But one day, no one knows when, it will collapse and hopefully someone will use its weathered timbers to grace the inside of a lovely new country home, instead of ending up in a dump or fire.
But the old barn reminds me of people aging.
On the outside we lose our roof (hair), lean on a cane, we turn silver or gray too, and our skin shows its age in wrinkles, creases, and brown spots.
But on the inside, we grow beautiful. It is the only explanation I can think of why little children bond so tightly with their grandparents.
Only a small child, like animals, can see the inside of what people really are, and see the goodness in there.
They are blind to our frailties and energize us as we see in them the little child we all want to be again.
Grandchildren are tiny angels who lift us up when we have trouble remembering how to walk.
They make the years between them and us disappear in the clouds of love.
The seniors we become have weathered the harsh times, the years of drought and the inevitable storms of life, until the finished product is beautiful.
I love seeing couples who have been married for 50 and more years. They have that something which is hard to describe or picture or paint.
Those who have had an easy life never achieve what life’s hard knocks can create.
Some day, we like the old barn, will be hauled away to the great Ranch in Heaven where we will be given new tasks.
We’ll be more beautiful there for the seasoning we received from our time on Earth and add to the beauty of Heaven.
ABOUT THE AUTOR – GENE MORIN
A teacher and writer of newspaper columns on self-care and self-improvement; columns of general interest on any subject of the news, people, characters, places, and history,
Reach Gene Monin at adios43@yahoo.com
