"To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent—
that is to triumph over old age."
~Thomas Bailey Aldrich
"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
~Mark Twain
Everything in my day becomes a seed for a blog entry...I love it! This one was inspired by a communication from my aunt, a woman in her 80s who has the joyful radiant heart of a much younger woman. I was inspired by her positive perspective on a major life transition she is going through, finding the good in it. She is the embodiment of the qualities in the first quote above—hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent.
It got me thinking about ideas I have had about aging. Resilience is not one of the words that pops to mind readily. Although I'm happy to see a new vision of the elder years emerging in our collective consciousness. Case in point, the new film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which you must see, especially if you are over the age of 50. It's about a group of older folks who rediscover their youthful hearts and begin life anew. For further inspiration, if you are in the second half of life category, you must check out the book Growing Old is Not for Sissies: Portraits of Senior Athletes, by Etta Clark. It's full of photographic portraits of men and women in their elder years living life to the fullest—like 81-year-old Eric Reynier who loves to hang glide. He says, "It is a wonderful sense of freedom, flying from the top of a mountain, over forests, often very close to hawks...It's the nearest thing to being a bird." And then there's 80-year-old Eleanor Hyndman who took up karate at the age of 78 so that she could experience "mental sharpness and self-confidence."
It got me thinking about ideas I have had about aging. Resilience is not one of the words that pops to mind readily. Although I'm happy to see a new vision of the elder years emerging in our collective consciousness. Case in point, the new film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which you must see, especially if you are over the age of 50. It's about a group of older folks who rediscover their youthful hearts and begin life anew. For further inspiration, if you are in the second half of life category, you must check out the book Growing Old is Not for Sissies: Portraits of Senior Athletes, by Etta Clark. It's full of photographic portraits of men and women in their elder years living life to the fullest—like 81-year-old Eric Reynier who loves to hang glide. He says, "It is a wonderful sense of freedom, flying from the top of a mountain, over forests, often very close to hawks...It's the nearest thing to being a bird." And then there's 80-year-old Eleanor Hyndman who took up karate at the age of 78 so that she could experience "mental sharpness and self-confidence."
I also started thinking about Barbara Marx Hubbard, the beautiful and vibrant 82-year-old futurist, author and President of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. She coined the phrase regenopause to re-frame traditionally held beliefs about the post-childbearing years. She sees these years as a time when women may be "overcome with a profound impulse to co-create and to self-evolve", when a woman "gets so turned on to her creativity and life purpose that it starts to activate her at the cellular level." She is a living example of this new vision of elder years as a time to create from within, to give birth to one's deepest creative impulses. I am grateful for her inspiration.
And now I hear the Bob Dylan song "Forever Young" going through my head...and I leave you with this blessing today:
May your hands always be busy.
May your feet always be swift.
May you have a strong foundation when the winds of change shift.
May your heart always be joyful.
May your song always be sung.
And may you stay forever young.
~Bob Dylan, from "Forever Young"
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