During my holidays I read a book purchased in a secondhand book store (where else?) by a Robert Muller. He was Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and the book "A Planet of Hope" has short paragraphs on a whole lot of subjects. Here are a few on growing older.
"No person is ever completely self-realized or fulfilled.
We learn and enrich ourselves until we die.
We gain new capacities and we lose old ones.
The art of living has no end.
It is too rich to be exhausted by a single life".
"There is no downward trend in life.
Advanced age is as precious as any other.
It is accumulated spirit, the culmination of process,
an apotheosis of the miracle of life.
In so many civilizations the elders are the most
respected and honoured persons:
they are the slowly distilled essence of life."
"Even and especially during old age, life can pursue its upward course thanks to a passion, and that passion can range over an immense gamut of reality: from the infinitely large (e.g. God) to the infinitely small (e.g. a hobby). The object is unimportant - only the drive for life, the will for life, the passion for what one is doing counts."
"My physical body may be less efficient and less beautiful in old age. But God has given me a vast compensation; my mind is richer, my experience is wealthier, my soul is broader, my wisdom is at a peak. I am so happy with old age that contrary to Faust, I would not wish to return to my youthful ignorance." (Oh well, some of us never did look beautiful in the first place.)
"Better an old man with an old heart that needs the help of a pacemaker than a young man without a heart."
I am "warmed" and heartened by these sayings. There is hope for me yet! I know that they are true. I hope I remember them when I get old. :-)
(Photo: A van I purchased today... my old one was passed its used by date and I find a van so useful. I still have work to do! :-))
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