“Meridel Le Sueur, who lived to be ninety-six, wrote, “I am luminous with age.” Luminous. Not painted. Not masked. Luminous. Luminous! They are the women and men who see with wider eyes, hear with tuned ears, and speak with a more knowing tongue. These are people with soul.
Here is an important part of the aging process: simply getting accustomed to being older. Part of being a vigorous older person demands, first of all, that we learn to accept it for what it is, a new and wonderful but different stage of life. We must admit, even in our minds, to being older in a culture that is so youth-centered that age is something to be hidden rather than celebrated.
Me? we say. Seventy? Impossible. One can almost hear the tone of shame that goes with it. It burrows into the center of us, and an alarm sounds in the heart. How could life be almost over, we worry, when we were just beginning to understand it, to enjoy and to love it? And with the fear of age, if we succumb to the notion that being older is some kind of obstacle to life, comes the loss of one of life’s most profound periods.”
-Joan Chittister, Essential Writings.
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Me, I say? 75? I can hardly believe it, but it is the truth. I won’t succumb to other people’s idea of it.
I’m done with being shamed, I won’t allow it now.
All my life, I’ve encountered people who do that to people they see as being weak and vulnerable. I refuse to be shamed about getting old. I have a passion for life, and I celebrate where I have been, where I am going, and where I am now. This is my chance to be better, for my story to end well, and to leave the world in a better place than I found it, even in the smallest of ways.
I’m proud of me now, Ā I am so much better a human than I ever was when I was young. – jk
I just finished that chapter Jon! So far this book has been wonderful for me. It has helped me to not give up on a relationship with my sister and reminds me that Iām just beginning this new adventure and I have lots ahead of me. Be it 5 or 40 more years I am going to be luminous!
I’m 71 in May but it’s my body that is not me. I am young still inside. My soul and spirit still have vision and excitement for life. I retired from teaching and I have plans for the future, pet therapy which we’ve done before and looking. Into working with the immigrant
Fun parallels…I’m a retired teacher who will be 72 in May! My photography is what carries me through. š
Thought for the Day
Sunday 19 November
We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls.
ā Saint Teresa of Avila
Eknath Easwaran’s Commentary
I am not my body. This body is like a jacket that I wear.
I have a brown jacket with a Nehru collar, made in India, which has served me very well. I take good care of it, and I expect it to last me at least another five years. This body of mine is another brown jacket, made in South India and impeccably tailored to my requirements by a master tailor, whose label is right inside. This jacket has to last me much longer than the other, so I am very careful with it. I give it the right amounts of nutritious food and exercise. Just like my Nehru jacket, this body-jacket will someday become too worn to serve me well. When death comes I will be able to set it aside, with no more tears than I would shed when I give my old Nehru jacket away.
The Thought for the Day is today’s entry from Eknath Easwaran’s Words to Live By.