A Grace Filled Age
[dedicated to a dear friend in our creative writing group]
By Lorraine Santarlas December
2012
The art of graceful aging should become an inspiration
and wisdom for everyone. Samuel Ullman
wrote, “Nobody grows old merely by living
a number of years. Years may wrinkle the
skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” Time passes, life progresses, sometimes for
the better and sometimes for the worst.
Making the most of situations, weathering storms, and riding out the
waves of bliss, each episode carving out the creases that form facial imprints,
where once features were smooth. These
blessed grooves fashioned by smiles or frowns, stress or laughter, reveal the
enthusiastic existence, and dedication to living life to the fullest.
Many
senior folks have mastered the art of living, not only to be physically alive
but also mentally alive, by savoring every moment. Adolescence is just a stage of life. To be
young at heart is to be alive. Pablo Picasso said, “It takes a long time to become young.” The youthful existence matures and freezes quickly
as hard work, stress, and striving to achieve passionate goals eventually stifles
a life. Often we neglect to take time to
view the whole picture, to stop and smell the flowers. Then with time, wisdom emerges, and the
youthful mind-set evolves and is revitalized.
For Mark Twain, “Age is an issue
of mind over matter. If you don’t mind,
it doesn’t matter.” Yes, that
indeed is becoming young at heart. What
really matters in life, is love and the blessing of good friends and a loving
family. It is the simple things, basic
human kindness, and nature’s splendor that keep us, forever young at heart.
To be ninety-five is to have lived
long and played hard. Some folks
reclaim their God given talents, as time marches on. Resourcefulness is their pathway for living,
enhanced by their intrinsic vigor for happiness. A writer, a bowler, an amateur artist, she
is…a wife, a mother, and grandmother too.
Ninety-five or one hundred and five is simply a number for the years,
yet the soul is forever young within, just think of Betty White, Kirk Douglas,
or our own Marion Klarman.
Maybe it is the humor, the fervor,
or the courage that seizes the soul to count its blessings. Elders recall their treasured gifts of
sunshine after each cloudy day, the unexpected appearance of a friend who comes
to visit just because, or the joy of sharing a belly laugh together. Whatever the course, as the years go by, it
becomes a golden life, a life ground down and polished smooth like precious
gems. Someone wrote that “my flaws are some of my greatest treasures,
like grains of sand in oyster shells that must grate and irritate to become
pearls.” Do we take the time to appreciate
the life journey with its rough and ragged days? Then how with time and patience, each trial
and tribulation managed to ease and assuage, with age. These
are the lessons we should learn from those who strive, to become one day, an
octogenarian or perhaps even centenarian,
still alive and carving out deep facial grooves, each wrinkle a ribbon
of honor, for all to glimpse and admire this grace filled age.
It is in this grace filled age of
maturity that growing older is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people
think. You don’t question yourself
anymore. You’ve earned the right to be
wrong. No one will live forever, but
while you are still here, don’t waste time lamenting what could have been, or
worrying about what will be. Do you
recognize the precious freedom and grace that comes with age?
Henry David Thoreau wrote: “Live each season as it
passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign your-self
to the influences of each.” There is
elegance; a grace filled inner soul, and a certain chutzpah evoked from those
polished senior citizens. These elder
cliques continue to baffle those younger folks, the ‘old of heart,’ who are
still void of grace.
