Perspectives of Age

I’m getting ready to visit with some new friends. They are younger than me. I’m aware how nervous I am about meeting them.

It’s this age thing.

So I took a nice walk up the hill behind my house and allowed my mind and heart to wander amidst the cactus and desert trees.

What I was aware of during this walk was how time and space change our perspective. I was so very grateful for this thought and I’d like to share it with you.

I remembered that as I age, my perspective changes just as my perspective changes as I walk up the hill and view the mountains. Since I’m “moving” in time and space my perspective changes with each moment. My view of the landscape seems to shift just as my perspective about people and life shift as I age.

When I took this walk, not only did the landscape change or look different with every step I took, I saw new wonders with each step as well. Here a small cholla struggling to attach, there a footprint or a dropping from an animal, a startled bird, the sunlight highlighting a bush or the wind moving the trees.

So it is with life.  People, places and things all change as I age. My thoughts about many friends and family have shifted over the years. My intentions, my goals, all that in my life has also changed moment to moment while taking this journey.

I think aging is a wild adventure and I intend to relish every moment. Stay the same?? Don’t age? I don’t think so. I decided a long time ago not to hide my age or try to be what I am not. It’s a struggle at times. Our society values youth not age. That’s not what this is about however.

I am coming up against all that “age” stuff again as I turn 69 and look square into the face of 70. But my mountain walk helped and I will meet these new friends on my terms, as I am, as I indented so many years ago.

I leave this post with a quote from one of my heroes from the “olden days”. 

Eleanor Roosevelt

“With maturity we grow much more humble, and we know that we have to acknowledge very often things that are not quite perfect.

Because we acknowledge it does not mean we love our [country] ‘self’ any less . . . What it does mean is that we know human nature is not perfect and that we hope that all of us can contribute to something better"