What Can We Learn From Helping Elderly People



Elderly people can teach us how to be a very patient person. They live in the present time. Sometimes, people who live with them cannot expect anything from them that comes from elderly people's past or even from their future. This can be a great psychological and spiritual experience. Why working with elderly can be a psychological and spiritual experience? For God everything is in the present time. There is no future or past.

I help with my grandpa right now. He is over 93 years old. Sometimes I have to tell him who I am. How often do we desire to forget about who we are?  It is not always easy to accept who we are.  I am ok with this experience. It makes me a better person. It helps me psychologically and spiritually to live in the present moment and to enjoy what I can experience at that moment.

The psychological help from this experience is that my expectations from people are very low. I try not to have any expectations from my grandpa. I know he is my grandpa but he is a different than a few years ago.  However, I am different too. We all change. This is something we need to accept. One day I might be like my grandpa. One day I might not have any problem to live only in the present time.

The spiritual help that comes from helping my grandpa is that I am learning to rely on God’s help.  Sometimes, I just have to close my eyes and tell myself I am not in charge of this experience and let go any desire to control it. I just have to be with my grandpa at this particular moment of his life. I tell myself: God has to do this same time over and over again with me.    
So, let us learn for the elderly people about how to live our life.

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