How do you know when bad weather is coming? You feel it in your bones. Depending on your age or physical health, it could be your whole body, your joints or, at any age, your injuries. New injuries especially tend to be weather anchors. Old injuries will hurt for some time afterward and then slide into an ache whenever turbulent weather is on its way. Whereas, if there are clear skies in the forecast, then (as quoted from the movie “Willow”) “The bones tell me nothing.”
For some of us, getting old feels like we're living in an alternate universe and an alien has taken over our body and taken us to a planet with a much stronger gravitational pull. This causes many of our body parts to hurt and slows us down, seemingly in an effort to kill us (aliens, remember) – body and spirit. In some cases, sadly, the spirit is first to go. We feel weighted down and our body no longer feels like it’s our body. (Lol, when we look in the mirror – it doesn’t look like our body anymore either.) It belongs to some old person...
Wait a minute… What? Did I just type “some old person”? Dang. I wonder if that’s a clue to what I’m gradually turning into at the moment.
And it is gradual – in a startling manner. As in, once or twice every decade you suddenly realize the near-ancient-looking person in a new photo is you. And then those times begin to multiply in each next decade, until you finally accept the fact that it is indeed you staring out of that next new photo.
“Curses” on these new cameras that overexaggerate our every flaw!!! (Does this mean I still haven’t accepted the “older” me in photos…?) Oh, they are magnificent when they’re taking a nature photo, so they have their uses, but as for us– (Give up already, girl! I mean, Old Lady.)
There are a few perks in growing older – in our inner person. Most of us calm down a bit (unless something really gets us going), have more patience (depending on who we’re dealing with), more wisdom (ahhh, well, some of us do…), have learned that people are important (again…some of us have…), and we don’t let things that don’t really matter linger in our hearts for long (I like to think this one is mostly true!). We know most things, in time, can be resolved, healed, or let go of – and we’re more likely to make that “in time” sooner rather than let it stagnate into a malignant cancer in our souls. It’s better to just get over things right away. The past is the past – it’s history – over, done. We may as apologize and/or forgive, allow ourselves some healing and, hopefully, some reconnecting, or if it can’t be resolved in a positive way, simply LET IT GO. Our time to live is winding down, our perspective is radically changing, and we want to enjoy what’s left.
A number of years ago, a fairly young (at the time) gal I know of was hit by a falling tree and paralyzed. Her first words after being told of her condition were, “Well, if God thinks He can use me better in a wheelchair, I can live with that.” For decades, she has struggled physically every day, but her faith and her joyful attitude has never wavered. She didn’t make it about what had happened to her, but how she could use it to better the world around her. That’s a pretty special person. She knew she had a lot of living to do, and she was going to do it well no matter what her circumstances.
I’m going to let you think about that until next week when I finish my thoughts on understanding the aging process. Wherever we are in life – on the move or bound in a wheelchair – let’s look for the good, the blessings, the “what can I do with what I’ve been dealt”. We all have our burdens and trials; the question is: how do we want to impact others by our situations. Positively or negatively?
One of my favorite slogans is: A mind is a terrible thing to waste. In my opinion, that’s in regard to any age, any potential, any person. Go visit an elderly person and ask them for some wisdom. The majority of them will be more than willing to offer some. And many have some wonderful wisdom to offer.
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