The sunshine, the moon and stars are essential and can light our way as we journey along the roadway of life.

We feel warmth as the sun appears in the mornings dawn or breaks through a cloud cover at midday. As we pray for rain and the clouds that hold moisture, we have the knowledge that the sun is still above, just waiting to again bring the lights and heat that sustains life for all here on earth.

Just as our bodies and functions of living depend on these truths, our minds require thoughts and actions that can give us inspiration, the will to continue and lets us know that we can, and have made a difference.

Unexpected experiences, happenings, and interaction with others, even strangers, can lighten our load of worries about the future. They can assure one that life is still worth living and for me, the life of a senior citizen is a worthy part of existence.

Recently I was shopping, riding in the store’s electronic cart. I glanced up and a young woman, pushing a cart with a little one about 10 months old in it was about to pass me going in the opposite direction.

She glanced up from talking to her baby and a look of surprise lighted her face and she reached out and touched my arm with a smile on her face.

Then she blinked and said, “Oh! You look so much like my mother.”

I said, “Thank you, what an honor for me.”

I smiled as I watched her son also smile at me with a happy grin. I said, “You have a beautiful son, has your mother seen him yet?”

Her eyes almost misted when she said, “I just lost my mother.”

Then she said, “She used to ride a cart like yours when we came here and she had glasses like yours. You are so much alike.”

Her husband and another son, six years old came up behind her and I met them.

Charles caught up to me and got to meet them.

There seemed to be a glow around us and Virginia continued to smile as she again expressed how much I reminded her of her mother.

We exchanged phone numbers and continued our shopping with shared smiles.

This was truly a day when “Sunshine shown brightly and touched my heart.”