Just as the seasons ebb and flow, systematically transitioning from one to the next, so do the phases of our lives. We naturally transition from one stage of life to the next, yet at a certain time in life, we tend to want to fight it. This is not helpful. I’m not saying we can’t do things to try to ease the changes; we can (and should) do what we can to take care of ourselves and our health and live as happily as possible while accepting the fact that we are getting older.
“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”
Betty Friedan
One way to start coming to terms with this fact is to take some time to reflect on the life we’ve lived so far, the circumstances that have brought us to where we are. We are as old as we have ever been, and at the same time, we will never again be as young as we are at this very moment.
“One of the reasons people get old—lose their aliveness—is that they get weighed down by all of their stuff.”
Richard Leider
When we take time to reminisce, think about our feelings (past and present) and where we are in life and what we want in the future, we realize that there will inevitably be more changes. If we learn to let go of things that are no longer beneficial, and focus on what we want going forward, we can free ourselves of much of the discomfort of change as we take the next step on the journey of life.
“Oh, the worst of all tragedies is not to die young, but to live until I am seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Weekly Post 