You were a child once... but the years passed by and you became a young man, nearly an adult...

And now you look at me with some disdain just because so many years have passed for me and today I am old...

You observe my shaky and wrinkled hands and forget that they were the first ones to caress yours, when they were still insecure.

You criticise my hesitating and slow pace, but you forget they were the ones that orientated your first ones.

You complain when I ask you to read a word I cannot manage to see with precision, forgetting the many words I repeated innumerable times for you when you learned how to speak.

You talk about how slow I am to make a decision, but you forget that my decisions delimited your first ones.

You say I am an ancient old-fashioned man, but I have to confess I did not think much about myself to make of yourself a good man.

You complain about my weak health, but believe me; a lot of work was needed to make sure you were in good health.

You laugh when I am not able of pronouncing a word properly, but I affirm I forgot myself so that you would get into university.

You say I do not have convincing arguments on the rare occasions we speak, however, many were the times I had to advocate in your favour in the countless difficult situations you put yourself in.

Today you are grown...

You are a healthy young man and youth thrills your time...

You've forgotten your childhood, your first steps, your first words, your first smile...

But believe me, all those moments are quite alive in this old man's memory, in whose chest beats the same loving heart as before...

It is true that time has passed, but I hadn't realised...

I only realised it on that day... that day you called me an old man for the first time, and thus I looked in the mirror...

And there was an old man with grey hair, deep lines around his eyes and a certain air of knowledge that hadn't been there before.

That is why I tell you, young man, time is implacable, and one day you too will look up in the mirror and will realise that the image you will see won't be the one you admire today...

But you will feel that in your chest your heart will still beat in the same compass...

That the affection that you cultivated won't fade away.

That the emotions you fell will still be felt as before...

That hard words will still hurt with the same intensity...

And that even if many winters had to be endured, you will not be insensible in front of the indifference of human beings you cuddled in their childhood...

That is why I give you this advice, my son:

Do not laugh or blaspheme about the situation I find myself now, because I have been what you are now, and you will be what I am now...

Think about it!

Those who treat the old with disdain, are the branch of a tree that lets the trunk that sustains it, fall without support.

The ungratefulness to the ones that sustained us in our childhood is the seed of bitterness planted in the soil, and it will be harvested later.

Therefore, let's do to our old people what we would like people to do to us once our time comes.

Let's think about it!

Spiritist Moment Team.
December 10.2009.