Thank you, Christopher, for your thoughtful post. I am about to turn 52 and am dwelling a lot about aging. I think getting old is a luck as well as a choice for we choose how we want to live. We actually have limitations all our life, they are more in our head when we are young and more in our body when we get old, but being human is learning to work with, and push, our limitations. For my part, I feel I’m a teenager of the old age, not too limited yet and simply having to smile to look 10 years younger - smile is the best face lift ever! 2 years ago, I’ve decided that since I had not so much time left ahead, it was now or never to achieve my dreams, the ones I thought I left behind when I became a young adult. I had nothing to lose and was eager to make my life count, at least for me, which is the more important, right? So I wrote my first novel, am currently writing my second one while trying to find a publisher for the first one and have lots of other projects for the next 30ish years.
For me, aging is not starting to die or waiting for death in a one room apartment casket, it’s scaring our fears away, loss and death are already there so why fear them, so that we can start to live fully during the time we have left. And believe me, I already know what aging do to our body for I have arthritis and underwent 2 surgeries this year. That’s exactly why I want to live fully for as long as I can! No more time to waste. As long as I’m alive, well, I’m alive - and kicking! Lots of love.
Thanks for this thoughtful, inspiring reply, Geraldine. I loved, "being human is learning to work with, and push, our limitations." And congratulations on finishing a novel manuscript and writing your way back to your earlier dreams!
Growing old is a gift, I cherish. My greatest commodity is time. The recent loss of my father has emphasized how very precious this life opportunity is. Whatever moments I get to live, regardless of the rainbow of emotional, undulation that colors them, are my only opportunity to color with my rainbow of human being-ness. CHEERS to coloring with tension and the paradox of life evolves...just for the Health of IT!
I’m only 52 so going grey wearing glasses etc is new. I see the horizon with less denial now. I see the pain coming from attachment. It’s like yes we were young and pretty once but were we really? An image can’t think. It was the timeless mind that was always watching. Now shocked and bummed by the wrinkles and approaching infirmity. Why? Because the mind is still vital. I choose mind over body.
Still wish I was that hot breakdancer of my youth though!
I guess I’d have to say I’m very, very lucky. So glad I get to share this journey with you. I love the way this piece feels like it really incorporates the best and the worst and highlights the ways in which many of those things result from choices — while some don’t. We’re on the same page, I’ve just read a tiny bit into the next chapter.
Thank you, Christopher, for your thoughtful post. I am about to turn 52 and am dwelling a lot about aging. I think getting old is a luck as well as a choice for we choose how we want to live. We actually have limitations all our life, they are more in our head when we are young and more in our body when we get old, but being human is learning to work with, and push, our limitations. For my part, I feel I’m a teenager of the old age, not too limited yet and simply having to smile to look 10 years younger - smile is the best face lift ever! 2 years ago, I’ve decided that since I had not so much time left ahead, it was now or never to achieve my dreams, the ones I thought I left behind when I became a young adult. I had nothing to lose and was eager to make my life count, at least for me, which is the more important, right? So I wrote my first novel, am currently writing my second one while trying to find a publisher for the first one and have lots of other projects for the next 30ish years.
For me, aging is not starting to die or waiting for death in a one room apartment casket, it’s scaring our fears away, loss and death are already there so why fear them, so that we can start to live fully during the time we have left. And believe me, I already know what aging do to our body for I have arthritis and underwent 2 surgeries this year. That’s exactly why I want to live fully for as long as I can! No more time to waste. As long as I’m alive, well, I’m alive - and kicking! Lots of love.
Thanks for this thoughtful, inspiring reply, Geraldine. I loved, "being human is learning to work with, and push, our limitations." And congratulations on finishing a novel manuscript and writing your way back to your earlier dreams!
Growing old is a gift, I cherish. My greatest commodity is time. The recent loss of my father has emphasized how very precious this life opportunity is. Whatever moments I get to live, regardless of the rainbow of emotional, undulation that colors them, are my only opportunity to color with my rainbow of human being-ness. CHEERS to coloring with tension and the paradox of life evolves...just for the Health of IT!
Thank you for this, Tina. Loss is a teacher, I think. A teacher of hard lessons! I love your rainbow metaphor.
I’m only 52 so going grey wearing glasses etc is new. I see the horizon with less denial now. I see the pain coming from attachment. It’s like yes we were young and pretty once but were we really? An image can’t think. It was the timeless mind that was always watching. Now shocked and bummed by the wrinkles and approaching infirmity. Why? Because the mind is still vital. I choose mind over body.
Still wish I was that hot breakdancer of my youth though!
Thanks for the prompt
Thanks for this thoughtful, introspective response. I find this whole aging thing complicated and also sacred.
What a great title! and one which is ME ME ME.
I owe the title to my friend, Kaye.
I guess I’d have to say I’m very, very lucky. So glad I get to share this journey with you. I love the way this piece feels like it really incorporates the best and the worst and highlights the ways in which many of those things result from choices — while some don’t. We’re on the same page, I’ve just read a tiny bit into the next chapter.
So thankful for you.