100 is the New 25
May 13, 2015
When I was 25, I had the erroneous notion that people who got older became, and identified inside with being older, what ever that meant, I wasn’t sure. I would see someone very elderly and assumed, of course that they would recall their youth, but certainly not feel they were still in their youth! Now as years have fallen behind me, and I’m older than I could imagine, I have little idea upon awaking each morning, and throughout the day that the inner me is not the same one as in younger years. Indeed, I am the same as that 25 year old except for the knowledge and knowing accumulated, and realizing that the body ages, but for many or most, the ‘you’ has no age!
When you are 100, many upon awaking, or in dreams, will see in the mind and heart that time will seem to stand still. It should slowly occur experientially that the you is not the body, but a container to allow the spirit many varied experiences hopefully to develop the many aspects of a higher, more conscious being.
The trick is to grow up without losing your innocence and playfulness. The more seriously you take life, the more room there is to remain a child. When you teach your child how to skip a stone across a pond, maybe you’ll notice that it’s a game but also a lesson in life.
However old we are, whatever gender, the old Roman words: puer for the spirit of youth, senex for old age, like the English words: puerile and senile apply. Develop the skill to be seriously playful and playfully serious. Look at life from the proper angle and put the right spin on it.
Re-evaluate the old way of seeing age. I like to use the old ‘football’ analysis and divide life into quarters. The first quarter is up to 25; second quarter is up to 50; third up to 75, and the fourth to win the game is up to 100. Then beyond 100 is ‘overtime’. If you’re 65 or 70 and feel it’s all over, well it’s still the third quarter. In any case, open your heart and let love in to be happy where you are at!
Condition your mind to be playful, non serious while not ignoring when you need to be, and enhance all the characteristics of love, love of the inner self. Each of us is here magically for such a short time in the scheme of things. Everyday is a precious gift. Stay in the moment, in fact age is a state of mind for the real spiritual you. With the aging of the body, the you remains the same, yet wisdom can grow where the view gets better and better!
