Baseball great Satchel Page, who pitched until he was nearly sixty, once said: “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” I don’t mind my age because age means nothing to me. I can’t get old, because I’m working. I was old when I was 26 and out of work. As long as you are working, you stay young; and time goes by in a snap.
Life is like a small airplane. If you get up to a certain height, even if you turn the engine off, you glide for a long time. So, I’m gliding and getting more mature with each year. I never stop laughing just because I more years have passed. Quite the contrary, I believe that a person grows old when he stops laughing. If you laugh a lot, when you get older, your wrinkles will be in the right places. Isn’t it fun to keep gliding and maturing with each year and enjoy both at the same time?
I do wish I could tell you my age but it’s impossible. It keeps changing all the time.
Some days I feel 19, sometimes I feel 109. Usually, I’m somewhere in-between. But one thing is obvious; it takes twice as long to look half as good. When I have finally gotten my head together, my body starts falling apart. I now know that I can do just as much as ever but would rather not because I’m getting marvelously mature. My body now has a mind of its own that starts to show around my middle. The question of how a two-pound box of candy can make me gain five pounds becomes one of my life mysteries.
I don’t mind my real age. If someone is willing to give me a discount because of the date on my birth certificate, I’ll take it. Isn’t it nice to have the head together, get an age discount, and enjoy both at the same time?
Maybe you haven’t yet discovered another advantage of getting older. It is that you don’t lose all the other ages you have been, and you carry accumulated wisdom with you all the time. This wisdom becomes your new skin through which you register the world up close. You size up people, ideas, opportunities, and day-to-day life through the new skin. Mark Twain once said, “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” Isn’t it nice to be able to understand life backwards? Isn’t it nice to gradually approach age with maturity and wisdom already at your side and enjoy both at the same time?
One more advantage of getting older is that you have a chance to see how things turn out with each passing year. It’s really true that the older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. Yet another bonus that comes with age is the freedom from worrying about what people think of you and what you look like. Freedom to do all the things you meant to do but never had time to – like, travel, read books, talk to friends, or just get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster. You know, in aging one becomes more foolish and more wise but definitely better. Isn’t it fun to enjoy both getting foolish and wise at the same time?
Here’s a funny story that happened on my recent birthday. My husband ordered me a birthday cake with an inscription: “You are not getting older, you are just getting better!” When asked at the shop how he wanted the message arranged he said just put, “You are not getting older” at the top, and “You are just getting better” at the bottom. It wasn’t until later in the evening, when my husband was ready to serve the cake that he discovered it read: “You are not getting older at the top; you are just getting better at the bottom.” Isn’t it nice to enjoy both the top and the bottom at the same time?
Perhaps, Longfellow sums up the aging experience best: “Age is opportunity no less than youth itself though in another dress; and the evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” Let your aging stars be invisible but enjoyable. Isn’t it nice to grow old and have fun at the same time?
*** This article was republished with permission from the best-selling Wake Up...Live the Life You Love book series. To hear more information on this book and the book series, go to http://wakeupteleclass.com/.