What’s Age Got To Do With It?

“To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

I find something very alluring about having the goal of working, even if eventually in a part-time capacity, as long as I can. Work is invigorating so long as it is interesting. And, so long as our work involves us in a passionate pursuit it can keep us feeling quite young. Despite the physical ageing process, what really has age got to do with anything? We are who we are from the dawn of life until dusk.

The older I get the more is my appreciation for life, and the more thankful I am for the grace in God that has carried me thus far so faithfully. And as more unique problems are added to my experience, and I am helped by God in fresh ways, I get to contemplate and sometimes understand more about the mysteries of life.

Blessed Are the Aged

Many people who consider themselves ‘aged’ may not feel this way—that they are blessed. But, in accord with their experiences of life, that they have, until now, survived, and have endured, there is much more for them to be in awe about as they consider their lives.

As we age and we reminisce we can take these moments and be somewhat awed as to the things we have endured, the things we have learned, and the relationships we have enjoyed.

The blessing of having aged somewhat, even if we are in midlife and nowhere near retirement age, is we have presumably learned about perspective. We might have felt forty years old, but we can feel fifty or sixty or seventy years young.

Age depends very much on perspective.

Taking more consideration about the legacy we have, rather than focus on the ageing process, thankfulness becomes us more and more. We are no longer in such a hurry to achieve. Our focus is less about work for work sake. Our goals are more centred on crucial relationships. Sensing that we won’t be here forever, we seek to make more of our moments count.

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Age provides opportunities to view life differently. Gone is the rush and hurry. More focus is on the differences we’ve made; the colours of our love. With age comes perspective, and we may well view an older age more favourably than midlife, because we are over vanities.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.