This weekend I went to my grandmother’s funeral. She was 100 years old.

I drove with my parents across the flatlands of Illinois to get there. I was looking out the window thinking “GOSH THIS LAND IS FLAT AND BORING.” For some reason I looked over before I said anything and my mother was all choked up. ‘Ann honey (that’s me!) I love this land. Look at how the flatness shows off the horizon. This is the richest farmland in all of the world! Look at the black soil. Do you know how much food this soil produce??

And it dawned on me. Perspective is an interesting thing. When I was looking out the car window I saw ‘boring’ and my mother saw ‘richness.’ Same land, same amount of time in the car.

 When my grandmother was born women did not have the right to vote in this country. When she died we had an African American President. She lived through The Great Depression, World War 1 and World War 2 just to name a few wars. She gave birth to four children at home with no assistance. She washed clothes by hand and starched and ironed all the families clothes taking literally days to do. The word ‘disposable income’ was never uttered in her lifetime.

And she buried a granddaughter and a great grandchild—his name was Zachary. He was 26 when he died.

Perspective is an interesting thing. I don’t know why some people live to be 100 and some to 26. By the way, she did not exercise and thought limiting her sugar intake to a cup a day was willpower!! There is no rhythm or reason to why she lived so long and he so short.

And for the record I don’t spend my days wondering why. I spend my days with my face to the sun busting with thanksgiving that both of them lived at all and in their lifetimes showed me love.