“Oh, today I’m 49 but tomorrow I’ll be 50″…well…You’re already 50 in Australia. Or if you live in Australia, you’ve got one more day to be “super young” 49 in the USA.
Each day is just a day.
A year is an arbitrary number based on a calendar that not even everyone agrees on.
Here’s the thing.
You were born once…
a long time ago as compared to the shelf life of cheese, but a blink of an eye as compared to the history of the world. Not even a blink. More like a quarter of a blink at the most.
You may look younger or older than the average idea of what people who have been on this planet for the same amount of time look like, you may be more or less patient, more or less mature, more or less awesome of a person.
Some people are very sickly when they’re just children, so if you’re 65 and can still go for a walk and carry your groceries, don’t you dare turn the corners of your mouth down when you don’t get carded on Senior Tuesdays.
What you look like doesn’t matter.
Really.
Our body is just the case. Does the music of a violin stored in an old case sound any different than the music from the same violin stored in a brand new case?
How about your passport, when it’s brand new it looks nice and shiny, but if you travel all over the world and have stamps in it from different places and the cover gets a little dog eared and tattered, do you feel awful about it? Or do you flip through the pages every once in awhile and remember all of the amazing places you’ve been? Have you ever even thought about it not being great because other people’s passports look newer?
When we get older, we wrinkle. We sag a little. We don’t look the same as we did when we were kids. It’s just a fact. There’s as much need to be sad about it as there would be to be thrilled about it.
Wouldn’t you think someone were a bit “off” if they were thrilled to be only 45 but someone told them they looked 90? But don’t we do that up to a certain age? Who picked that age? Kids want to look older, adults want to look younger. What’s the ideal age? When I was 13, I thought 18 was old. When I was 25, I thought 30 was old. Now they all go into the group name: “kids.”
How about we pick a new age to aspire to reach? Who right now is “worth” something to society? Or rather, who’s an older person who’s “worth” something to society? Because we fear aging, why? Because it’s associated with being worth less to society…less desirable, less attractive, less strong, less able…
I’m thinking the Dalai Lama.
He preaches peace, love, travels the world, helps millions of people…know how old he is?
76.
And you know what?
He’s still strong, and he’s still working more than full time in his life’s purpose.
So if you’re not 76 yet, then you are a baby.
If you are 76, or even older than 76, then you’ve just begun.
Now you kids go out there and have some fun today.
Love,
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