I have days when I resent my age. 
I looked at the nurse checking me in for cataract surgery with bemusement – why she was asking questions related to the elderly. Why was she doing that? Then I recalled – I fit the category. I am “elderly”, a euphemism for “old”.
After watching my family leap off a forty foot cliff into clear cool water, I lamented the inability to do certain things. I would have jumped with alacrity but getting out of the water and back up required dexterity over slippery rocks. My hip replacements held me back. My surgeon warned me to break or dislocate them would require a more complicated surgery with increased risks. So I watched them with real pleasure. And frustration. One grandchild retorted in annoyance: “Aging is purely mental – you are as old as you choose to be!”
I replied, “I wish someone would let my body know: my forgettery improves every day, I had retinal surgery on my left eye followed by the implantation of a plastic lens, I have Barrett’s esophagus, a hernia repair, diverticulitis and two titanium hips. I struggle to put on my socks and tie my shoe laces.”
There was merriment all round.
In the light of this process called aging that at times causes me resentment, I found John O’Donohue’s insight refreshing, rewarding and enables me to celebrate this stage of life.
“In the autumntime of your life, your experience is harvested. This is a lovely backdrop against which we can understand aging. Aging is not merely about the body losing its poise, strength, and self-trust. …
In actual fact, if you can come to see aging not as the demise of your body but as the harvest of your soul, you will learn that aging can be a time of great strength, poise, and confidence. To understand the harvest of your soul against the background of seasonal rhythm should give you a sense of quiet delight at the arrival of this time in your life. It should give you strength and a sense of how the deeper belonging of your soul-world will be revealed to you.” (in “Anam Cara”)
“Your experience is harvested.” Savour the thought and enjoy your expanded soul.
progressingpeople 