Sunday morning. here's something positive to perk spirits up. As usual, my favorite Philippine Star columnist came up with another beautiful piece, this time on Aging. With his permission, I would like to post the last few paragraphs here. I highlighted the most important ones.
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.......Now, as an older person, I have learned to let go of the many fears and guilt that spoiled what could have been numerous opportunities for joy, growth and happiness in the past. I am more forgiving of myself, and as a result, of others as well. I also feel less uptight and opinionated. I am even learning to appreciate people and points of views that I readily condemned before. In fact, I find myself embracing many of them now.
And this newfound joy and liberation, ironic as it seems, is the gift that comes with aging. Advancing years and the body pains it brings have made me more awake and responsive to life. While I may feel the limitations aging has imposed on this body, it has also given me direction and purpose.
Others may argue that aging is the dimming of the light, the forcible abduction into the night that one, at best, can only rage against. I tend to look at aging as a point from where a person can look back at how he or she has lived so far, appreciate and accept himself or herself, warts and all, and with the remaining time left, go for the last unfulfilled dreams.
To burn brightly and tell one’s story to the world is what I am talking about. At best, I have about two decades left to sing, write, learn and teach, to love, laugh, be silly, make mistakes, to serve, give and experience joy, to learn from suffering and drink from the bittersweet cup of life.
I therefore approach aging awake and conscious so as not to miss out on its gifts the way I missed out on some of the gifts of youth.
We need not go kicking and screaming and holding on to life before the big blackout. As James Hillman put it, "We have the option to build up to a lasting, glorious, and memorable sunset like no other."
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"Older and Yet Younger"
HUMMING IN MY UNIVERSE By Jim Paredes
The Philippine STAR 04/29/2007
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