Exploring the Archives of the Heart: Presentation at the Concordia Hospital Spiritual Care Conference

Our lives have been enriched with the gift of grandchildren and I want to begin by sharing the questions that two of our grandsons asked me some time ago. The older one is in his 30’s already and the younger one is in his early teens. The older one came back to Winnipeg from Ottawa on a visit, and posed this question, “So, Opa what’s going on?” and more recently the younger one asked, while we were driving, “What’s it really like to be old?”

These are incredible questions, aren’t they? They can be answered quickly and superficially or they can lead to longer and more complicated conversations between younger people and their Opa who is into his 82nd year already. More than that, these two questions can provide an important framework for all of us who are seniors as we reflect on our own lives.