"The Old Souls of Mouraria"

"The Old Souls of Mouraria"

This summer I traveled to Portugal and had the wonderful opportunity to visit Mouraria. Mouraria is a  colorful, diverse and soulful neighborhood of Lisbon, Portugal. Mouraria is full of history- from the melodies of Fado being carried by the hands of a skillful guitar player,  to the old colorful tile covered houses inhabited by Portuguese families signals of the Moors influence in Portuguese history. But amongst all this magic I found "Um Tributo" by Camila Watson.  According to the explanation " The photographs on these walls are a tribute to the elderly who live here. They walk this Beco daily and their spirit makes this corner of Mouraria special". 

This made me reflect a lot about the elderly in my family and how we treat them. How will I show respect and love to my parents in old age? As a Dominican we are very attached to our elderly and live and care for them till their death. We give them love and respect. Growing up in U.S.A. I see a huge difference in the way we treat our elderly. As a society the elderly are not viewed as a place of wisdom but rather they represent a past we want to move away from as we evolve as a country. There are lessons to learn from the elderly but more important theres more companionship and love that must be given. 

My mom is a home attendant she cares for the elderly when their family can't or wont. In her experiences what the elderly want the most is companionship. Someone to talk to- even someone to argue with.  Getting old is something that happens to all of us and we spend our lives pretending like that day won't come or that there's things we can do to delay it. I don't think they deserve to be alone in the end yet so many suffer from loneliness. I was brought to tears a couple of years ago when I found out that there's a program in Britain that has people call the elderly to converse with them and check on them. Some said that conversation was the only they'd had that day or even week. Not having anyone to talk to for days is a special kind of hell. We don't have to put pictures of our elderly around the walls of our cities to honor them but we most certainly must keep them in our hearts because we're here because of them. They're as much a part of our society then anyone else- let's not keep them in isolation lets keep them in our lives.

Walking down the Mouraria I felt it. I felt love I felt the warmth of connection and community and a strange peace that comes with honoring our ancestors and making peace with their spirits.