Getting Older Doesn’t Suck
Just living a while longer in the magnitude of the light that shines so brightly from my birthday candles! And, really, thank God, I’m not serious – no cake could support that many! But I am living in the light of God’s goodness and mercy to still be alive and well!
I remember working closely with the builders and owners of my 55+ active adult subdivision in Tulsa. As an Oklahoma R/E Broker, I represented them to the public and I handled their advertising. At the outset, we determined that our taglines shouldn’t include words like old folks, retired person, baby-boomer, or senior. Those were the practical words to use, but they didn’t equate to our lively, energetic, young-at-heart community. Though those of us who lived there weren’t working as hard as we once did or moving quite as fast as we once did, most of us were still living life large. We were REFIRED – not the typical RETIRED, sitting-in-a-rocking-chair, just watching TV kind of folks.
In that community and the one I live in now, some of us still work full-time, part-time, volunteer for charities and churches, travel, play pickleball, tennis and golf, take piano and voice lessons, are master gardeners, attend seminars and classes to upgrade our skills in various areas. We share our wisdom to young people, couples, and children. In fact, I’m taking Spanish lessons! If the younger generation would listen, we could save them a lot of time and effort by the wisdom we can share from the lessons we’ve learned.
Those of us who are more “senior” than “junior”, should have t-shirts made that read “Not Finished Yet” on them. Regardless the number of birthdays we’ve celebrated, we are still here. And if we are here, it means God still has a purpose for us and we are not finished. My favorite slogan is “I’m still here, so I’m not done!”
It happens all the time: young people complaining about getting older. Maybe your 43-year-old friend posts this on Facebook: “B-day coming up. I hate getting old!” Or another one tells you she’s 52 and follows it up with, “I know, I’m an old lady.” Or even one of your close friends makes the comment, “Getting old sucks,” while you try not to be offended.
The “getting older” mindset was learned. I have a firm belief that media has glorified youth to the point that the message has been ingrained in our heads. “Getting old is bad and scary!” Well, the joke is on them, because we know our self-worth is not measured simply by our age! We are ALL getting older (i.e., every living thing on planet Earth), so we shouldn’t complain about the natural progression of life.
Getting older really is awesome! We grow smarter, happier, and more accomplished. We become more secure. And if we’re blessed enough to call ourselves a senior citizen, we get all kinds of sweet perks and discounts. I sat beside a gal my age at my grandson’s football game on Thursday (my birthday). She was proud to show me her “Gold Card”, the Leander ISD card that admits her to every sports game, school plays and programs…..FREE in our district! And, she told me where I could get mine! I got it yesterday! Yay!
Seriously, those of you really bum the rest of us young-at-heart folks out when you complain about growing older. When you complain about getting older, you are basically saying that anyone older than you are, at this very moment, sucks. Well guess what? There are a LOT of people who are older than you and me right now. And they don’t suck.
Think about the people who are younger than you. If they are constantly receiving the message that getting older is a bad thing, their mentality will gravitate to nothing but fear of the future. Don’t buy into all those ads that getting older is the worst thing that can happen to you. Older is relevant, beautiful, smart, funny, important, and even….sexy! At least to my granddaughter who no longer calls me “Nana”. She calls me “Sexy”! And, I’m not stopping her! Getting older is happening for all of us even as we speak. Let’s embrace it, learn it, live it, love it.
Being older means your survival skills rock—you are probably even better at life than you were when you were younger, because of all you’ve experienced. So, instead of complaining about getting older on our next birthday, let’s celebrate everything we’ve learned during the past year, and the fact that we get the incredible privilege of traveling around the sun one more time as human beings. Seriously, God could have made us a tree or a camel or something. So, let’s go! Let’s get excited about getting older. Let’s change the status quo.
“They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,” (Psalm 92:14)