No one in these senior years is immune to thoughts that attempt to make meaning of the lives we’ve lived. And as usual, a recent episode of the television show, Call the Midwife, has evoked those kinds of deep thoughts.

As children on the show made time capsules (and yes, some of the adults, too) they all mused on what the future would bring. The year 2000 seemed fantastically far off to those little ones, and even to the grownups. And yet, here we are, more than 25 years past the new millenium.

I find it a wonder to be where we are. How fast it all went!.

So today, I’m just sharing the words of the character Sister Monica Joan from a recent closing moment. Just some things to think about:

We promise our children that there is a future; that one day there will be others on the grass where they play now, looking back in wonder at the lives that went before.

Every life contains some promise at the outset. Sometimes, its potential is not reached. Sometimes it blossoms despite the wind and rain. We all carry seeds within us. If we are blessed, they bloom into courage, faith, hope and the love that finds a way.

Children see nothing of that, nor do they need to. It is enough that they are laughing, saying “This is who we were last week, yesterday, an hour ago.” A child’s past to a child is already ancient history and their future views as far off as the moon.

That is as it ought to be.

Let the present nourish us. Let us turn our faces to the sun and even as the moment fades and falls away, let us follow. We will remember it.

We do remember it. We remember so many moments as we look back from almost three-quarters of a century.

I’d love to know what comes up for you when you read Sister Monica Joan’s words. Every comment here is a real gift.