My grandmother lived to be one hundred and four years old. She grew up in London, England in the late 1800s before moving to the prairies in Saskatchewan, Canada. She went from living in the bright center of the British Empire to living in a sod shack. The last time I saw her, she was talking about all the wonders she had seen over her lifetime. From steam engines to moon landings and from telegraphs to television. The pace of progress is even quicker now. Who knows what wonders we will see…

TOMORROW’S WONDERS

I travel ever on and on,

Through this strange place called life.

And lose myself in daily rounds,

Of sadness, joy or strife.

 

But every now and then I wake,

And look around in awe.

At miracles I see each day,

And then forget I saw.

 

A medicine that saves a life,

Last year was surely lost.

But we don’t see the miracle,

Just grumble at the cost.

 

A car that stops before it hits,

A person in the street.

Don’t care about the life it spared,

Just think, “That’s kinda neat!”

 

A human habitat in space,

Now orbits overhead.

Where scientists experiment,

While I I’m asleep in bed.

 

The pace of progress does not sleep,

It forges ever on.

As long as questions still get asked,

‘Til the last human’s gone.

 

Think back to when you were a child,

Now see the massive change.

Now see tomorrow and the next,

How beautiful and strange.

 

I know that it’s not guaranteed,

This future that I see.

But giving it a fighting chance,

Is down to you and me.

 

Try to consume a little less,

Give back a little more.

If we all do a little bit.

We’ll reach that golden shore.

 

So look around with open eyes,

At what we can achieve.

Now every one of us must build,

That future we believe.

 

Cheers, Winston