Aging’s not for sissies.
We must work at getting older. It means letting go of some things, but opening the door to others.
I’m truly fascinated by aging because it is so unique to each individual. Getting older is inevitable; getting old is not. That, to me, is what is so fascinating — exploring all the steps we can take to make getting older the best it can be.
But it takes work. It’s not for sissies.
In his book, Aging Strong, The Extraordinary Gift of a Longer Life, Dr. Bud Harris reminds us that we are living longer today and with more vitality than people ever have — that is if we seize the opportunity to do so through conscious choices in attitude and lifestyle. We must work at getting older. It means letting go of some things, but opening the door to others. I suspect some peopl get fearful. I do that occasionally. What will old age be like? What if my spouse dies? What if, what if, what if…..Fear and worry grab us and suck the spirit out of us.
Dr. Harris refers often to research and writing by Carl Jung who talked about the fear of getting older: “Life behaves as if it were going on, and so I think it is better for an old person to live on, to look forward to the next day as if he had to spend centuries, and then he lives properly. But when he is afraid, when he doesn’t look forward, he looks back, he gets stiff and dies before his time.”
So let’s move forward. Can we agree to that? Sure, we don’t know what the future has in store for us, but let us have hope and spirit. Challenge ourselves to meet the day. I love the comment I saw once from John Cougar Mellencamp’s grandmother: “Even on the longest day, life is too short.”
In his book, “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind,” Deepak Chopra gives many examples of people who have lived to be 100 and beyond. He also noted that not many people know many centenarians. That made me reflect on some of my elder acquaintances and family members. My own mother lived to 97, and her father was 96 when he passed. My aunt passed away recently at age 101, and she was “spunky” to the end. The night she died she attended evening Mass with her daughter. As they left the church, she noted a bucket in the vestibule catching water from a leaky roof. “Well,” she remarked,” we wouldn’t want to kick the bucket, would we.”
But when we do, let’s make sure that we’ve crossed off a lot of things on our bucket lists.