Age & Aches At 77 And 82 – To Be Kind Always

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I am 82+ (Sept 17) and my wife (Ampy) is 75+ (Oct 30), and while we are not interested at all in trying to catch up with age, age is trying to catch up on us! The image above was taken 18 March 2017, the birthday of my father-in-law Gabriel Reynoso and the same date as our wedding. Next to us is our autistic daughter Cynthia Mae. Ampy’s sisters Eliza and Corazon are smiling – what aren’t we?

Fast forward. This morning, Sunday, 05 Feb 2023 in Manila – we are in Laguna – I was thinking about Kindness being a simpler and more easily observable behavior towards others than to express to them “Love” in God’s meaning and manner. (Remember: There are Ten Commandments by which you have to express Love to your fellowmen. Not that simple!)
(“Be Kind” from lyonsrecorder.org)

Mid-afternoon today, my wife approached me with agony showing on her face, asking me, begging me to pray for her. We are Roman Catholics. Ampy was telling me, “By Jesus’ stripes, we are healed. We just have to ask for the covering of the Blood of Jesus! Pray over me please!”

She was saying, “Masakit ang mga ugat ko sa singit at paa, parang maiipit!” (The veins in my groin and feet feel being pinched and I feel the pain coming in.)  “This is the kind of pain that Sonny Domingo said that he thought he would not see the light of day!” (In other words, my wife was feeling she was dying!)

I did not panic. I have more faith than my wife? I prayed over her, literally. Yes, I never prayed like this:

Lord, please cover my wife with the Blood of Jesus. Please heal her whatever is aching her. (“By Jesus’ stripes, we are healed,” my wife writes on my notes-book.

Sonny is a friend at UP Los Baños – my wife was a Secretary at the office of the Director of Forest Products & Industries Development Commission (Forpridecom), and I was Writer/Editor at the Forest Research Institute (FORI), neighbors in love. What are we neighbors for?

After praying my best, I remembered my wife had been angry at/with me every now and then these past few days. We are not ageing gracefully? This time, I told her, gently: “You owe it to yourself to remove all kinds of anger. Be kind to yourself first.”

“Kindness” is what I now call as the 1-word equivalent of “Love” that which is God’s commandment:
Love God above all others.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love your wife as others would love theirs.
Love your neighbor’s as you love you own…

She is sleeping now as I check on her while I’m writing all this.

Meanwhile, I remind myself:

God’s love is a forgiving package of love. When you are being kind to others, you are being kind to others. Be kind even to animals – you know what I mean!”

Life is not perfect; not one of us is perfect – we have to be kind to each other.@517

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