reflections on getting older

Getting older does not seem to be quite as bad, and it isn’t, it just takes some getting used to.

You lose hair from places that you don't want to lose it, and grow hair in places where you don't want them to grow. Every part of your body gets stiff except that one part :-) You sleep less, wake up too early in the morning for the rest of the world, and fall asleep while sitting on a chair at any time of the day. It takes pulling some muscles and breaking some bones to realize that you don't have the same reactions and quickness while playing sports like you used to; and you learn pretty quick never, ever keep up with the kids on the ski slopes--unless you want to end up like Sonny (Side-of-No) Bono.

Other than that, the taste buds seem to have gone gung-ho, and everything you hated when you were a kid, becomes a 'delicacy' all of a sudden. You get a little bit more emotional when watching movies, and you find yourself alone a lot of times because the kids are always gone doing their own thing. But there are a lot more things that you understand--and you are more patient in tolerating the terror that those little kids dish out.

Over all, you are more sure of yourself, and your perspective of things has stabilized, a sure sign of slowing down, and becoming "set in your ways". You like staying home more often, and a vacation is being able to read a good book within a couple of days instead of a couple of months. And when the kids start calling you "gross" for finding delicious humor in "breaking wind" in front of them--you know you have gone past the top of the hill and on the flipside on your way down.

The only question that remains is whether you ought to decide to take your time going down, and take in the view while you still can, and coast on down to your final resting place. Where I hope that you realize that life is nothing more than finding order and beauty amidst chaos, that the very struggle is what gives meaning to the happiness which everyone seeks, and that it only follows that the more struggles, the greater the happiness. And that giving up is death.

So this here is my toast to life! It's been a wonderful journey for me so far, well, at least not boring, and I take all the sad and happy memories, for in remembrance, we taste a little bit of immortality.... And that "...the greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love, and be loved in return...."