Aging

"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."

— Frank Lloyd Wright

From the birthday-to-birthday yearning of youth to the "I can't believe it's already my 39th birthday" of midlife to the whirling dervish of holidays and birthdays and reunions and anniversaries of older age, aging is our constant companion.

As a child we embrace aging. In middle age we deny aging. And in our senior stretch we, well... I'm not sure yet. Maybe we forget aging? Or maybe we yield and accept and leverage the many merits of aging?

Verdict's still out!

Actually, middle age onward is still a work in progress. This is the time to own aging, to savor aging, to romance each new threshold and each new discovery and each new wrinkle. This is the opportunity to play and provide, create and contribute. This is the time to grapple with my mortality and to find inspiration and strength in the certainty that I will sooner or later shuffle off this mortal coil. This is the time.

"Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength."

—Betty Friedan

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"If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest."

— John Glenn

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"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

— Samuel Ullman

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We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."

— George Bernard Shaw

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"We live in a youth-obsessed culture that is constantly trying to tell us that if we are not young, and we’re not glowing, and we’re not hot, that we don’t matter. I refuse to let a system or a culture or a distorted view of reality tell me that I don’t matter. I know that only by owning who and what you are can you start to step into the fullness of life. Every year should be teaching us all something valuable. Whether you get the lesson is really up to you."

— Oprah Winfrey

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"There are six myths about old age: 1. That it’s a disease, a disaster. 2. That we are mindless. 3. That we are sexless. 4. That we are useless. 5. That we are powerless. 6. That we are all alike."

— Maggie Kuhn (founder, Gray Panthers movement)

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Carpe Midlife & Aging

Click on any of the titles and images below to meander my meditations (and doodles and rants) on aging...