Filling big paws

I love my meditation group. It's mine in a way that simply means I feel a part of a community. I also enjoy learning about life's mysteries with them.

I'd forgotten about one of the mysteries until this evening.

I clipped the tip of my thumb pruning back flowers. (There goes harp practice for a few days.)

It wasn't until I'd cleaned it up and bandaged it, that I thought about a mini-revelation the group shared with each other last week.

After talking about lots of things, the eldest in the group mentioned that the last job she had required fingerprinting for a background check. They had a hard time getting her finger prints from her fingers. She said she was told that the elderly lose their fingerprints.

She proudly held up her 80 year-old hands and proclaimed that the ridges were barely there.

This seemed to capture the interest of the rest of the group. Everyone started looking at their hands.

Someone about 78 years of age commented that, indeed, the ridges on his fingers were pretty smooth. Others looked over their fingers a little harder squinting through their glasses and moving their hands closer and further to gain better clarity.

How cool!

I'm struck by the similarity of watching a small group of children compare developmental changes in their bodies or excitement from learning something new about themselves.

As I bang my sore thumb on the keyboard writing this, I am reminded that should I live long enough, I too, will probably wear off the ridges of my finger prints - if I can keep my fingers intact! I just hope that a group of friends will surround me as we explore these changes together!