Love and Getting Old

I have just begun to wrap my head around the idea that we have entered another year. And with this realization, I also understand that as another year has passed, so has another birthday. At this time of the new year we are all one year older than this time last year. We are getting older. I have always had a deep loathing for the word “older” and I don’t assign much importance to it. But it’s not always a particularly pleasant thought. Most of us don’t want to get old. But we don’t want to do the things we need to do that delay the process, like exercise or eating the right things. We want to live our life in a happy fashion, free from worry and with a reasonable amount of mobility. We want to be able to breath, see, hear, sing, and to get from here to there without much pain.. We want our legs to work. We want to be able to drive a car. We hold on to what gives us a sense of freedom but also connects us with our world. And we want to be able to remember. We want to know what we’ve done, where we’ve been, what’s been said and why. My memory doesn’t seem to have the same capacity as it once did. It’s a byproduct of getting old, but it’s also a result of routine. I don’t pay enough attention, or at least not as much as I used to. Maybe there isn’t that much to pay attention to. Things fall into a day to day habit of living. It’s Monday, then it’s Friday again, and another week goes by. Christmas just passed and you can’t believe the year passed so quickly and we’re that about to start another. We want a do-over. We want another chance. We want to get a little younger. Time is passing. So if we feel that we are getting old, our direction needs to change and our attitude tweaked a little. The state of age is not a chronological measure; it is truly manifest in our attitude. So here’s the deal… This is a one way trip. Know it in your bones. You are in it maybe, what, 70, 80 years if you’re lucky? And that’s barring an accident or some bad luck that hammers you with heart disease, cancer or a stroke. If you live with an ongoing stress, subtract a few years more from that life total. You are going to leave this planet and it may be soon. It’s not a pleasant thought, but it’s a reality you have to familiarize yourself with pretty quickly. So if you’re sacrificing today for “someday down the road” you’re going to be that person in the last years of their life wondering how life passed them by. Please step forward. One step today. Make the call, see the movie, book the flight, drop the resentment, visit the friend, eat the ice cream, watch cartoons, read that book, and smile the whole day through. Dance in the store. Laugh for no reason. Abandon all thought of what others think of you. Be whatever you are. Souls never wrinkle. Spirits never age. Reclaim the energy of life within you. Live. This. Life. Now.