Let's all grow old, at least a little older today.

Time is not static. Nor is our place in time. Times change. We change. Relationships, circumstances, cultures, challenges, and demands upon our time change with time.

If we are so blessed, we change in positive ways as we grow older. We grow younger in the ways that youth causes the soul to blossom. We grow old like those things which must be cured with time to reach their fullest potential.

We get the best of both with time: youth and age.

The best is yet to be.

"At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he's seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he knows he can't." – Clarence S. Darrow

I guess I'll have to wait a few more years to find out, but I do not believe that is true in all cases. Yet,  it is often true.

Perhaps it is , partially, always, somewhat true.

Perhaps, it is, also, potentially, an excuse for not trying. Try to find the balance for yourself.

I know people who have truly awakened for the first time at 70.

Nelson Mandela was nearly 72 when he was released from prison and began to reshape South Africa. In his 90s he was still reforming the world.

Harlan Sanders did not start Kentucky Fried Children until he was 65 and invested his Social Security check. Sanders allegedly had 1,009 rejections when trying to establish his franchise.

Others remained active well into their golden years.

Big dreamers never stop dreaming and hoping. They do so because they believe they can make a difference.

Darrow may have been right about a couple of things:

• We learn we cannot change the world all by ourselves. It takes teamwork, community, and cooperation.
• We learn that it can't be done overnight and we may not live to see all the changes we desire. The writer of Hebrews says that the heroes of old days died in faith embracing a promise that would only be fulfilled in later generations.

That is no reason for discouragement because real dreamers have visions that extend beyond themselves and their lifespans.

Growing old is and can be a wonderful thing. That is especially true when we pass on all that we have received as a torch to be carried by the next generation. It is even more true when we spend our closing years investing our best time in them.

I think, that no matter what our age may be, we can still make a difference.

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"
– Robert Browning

 

Therefore I summon age

To grant youth's heritage,

Life's struggle having so far reached its term:

Thence shall I pass, approved

A man, for aye removed

From the developed brute; a god though in the germ.

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"Grow Old Along with Me"  – "Rabbi Ben Ezra"

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"My times are in thy hand."—Psalm 31:15.