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Today's
Meditation:
Aging isn't something that we all like to consider or
discuss. But we all do it, every day of our
lives. Not all of us grow old, but while we are
alive, we're aging day by day. And I think that the
lack of discussing it leads, in a lot of ways, to us
having more difficulty in accepting the fact that we're
growing old, and leads to many people not being able to
grow old gracefully, as Eric puts it.
We're all familiar with those people who are quite old,
but who insist on wearing clothes that are made for people
much, much younger than they. And we know the people
who are in their 60's but who insist on using the
vernacular of young people of their day. And at the
risk of sounding judgmental-- and judgment isn't the goal
at all-- these tendencies almost always make the older
people look somewhat silly, if not downright
ridiculous. These people are unable and/or unwilling
to accept the fact that they're growing older, so they try
to demonstrate to others that they aren't growing older--
that they're still young and cool-- and they're
taking all the possible grace out of their situation and
replacing it with awkwardness and unrealistic actions.
One of the things that I know for sure is that young
people like knowing older people who are comfortable with
themselves, who aren't trying to be something they're
not. These people-- the ones who are growing old
gracefully-- give them a sense of balance, someone to look
up to, something to aspire to as they age
themselves. For this reason alone, it's important
that we give them exactly what they need: a role
model in the art of aging.
This doesn't mean, of course, that we have to
"resign" ourselves to growing old. There's
tons of fun to be had in the world no matter how old we
are. In our older years things can be even more fun
when we've learned true appreciation. We shouldn't
limit ourselves as to what we can do or how we do it, but
we definitely should keep an eye towards growing old
gracefully, with dignity, peace of mind and heart, a lot
of fun, and acceptance of who we are and just how we fit
into the world.
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