Aging with Grace

Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breathe, but the view is much better.

Ingrid Bergman

As I began to write this, I looked up synonyms for aging. The first one was crumbling. That isn’t exactly the image I was hoping for. I tried looking up ageless and one of the choices was enduring. Webster defines enduring as lasting and durable. I can live with that. As we become older we are hard-wearing. Were we not, we wouldn’t get this far.

While I approach another birthday, I’ve been thinking about age and how relative it is. We sometimes hear, “You’re only as old as you feel.” As cliche as that has become, there is some truth to it. It isn’t only how we feel physically, but how we think about our age. Much of it is a state of mind.

Isn’t it odd how some things stay with you for years? When I was in high school, one of the teachers told the class,”This is the best time of your life.” Later in the day, what she said was repeated to another teacher and he became indignant about the comment. In his opinion the best was what came next. Otherwise, what was the point? Looking back at it with the advantage of age, I agree with him. For me, the best time of my life is now. Seen through the clarity of years, my view of what matters has been redefined.