ON (MY) AGING
Some personal observations.
There is that parable of the farmer who planted grain. Some of which fell on rocky ground, some on soil with little depth, and some on a fertile patch, with predictable results. Matthew 13 relates it in detail.
It seems to me that this story – and Jesus was a great story teller – portrays my aging. All of my life I have been bombarded with influences, some good, some mediocre, and some outright bad. The thing about aging is that there comes a harvest time when the balance sheet is shown, comparing it to Matthew 6: 33: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
The Bible tells us God’s truth, telling us forthright that sin always has consequences, such as sins against the body, resulting in sickness, and sins against creation, resulting in Climate Change. Me, I see my body as God’s personal gift to me, indicating that neglecting or abusing it, is a sin against God’s grace. That also implies that whatever I consume, must be clean and body-friendly, that whatever I do, must take my body into consideration, that whatever I think and intellectually absorb, must be body and spirit enhancing.
That’s why I try to enrich my thinking continually, and engage my brains to enhance my intellectual capacity, and explore the outer limits of my infinity, because I only use a small portion of my potential. That’s why I constantly try to enrich my thoughts and read and expand my fields of inquiry and broaden my outlook.
I am fully aware that I will only know in part, and will always have a tiny understanding of what goes on in the world. That’s why I am constantly open to new avenues of thinking, always try to see through the fogs and mists that influence me through often wrongly focused ideas.
What’s my LIFE all about?
I see life as an entity where every minute I am influenced by others, by family traditions, by the media, by the toys we have, such as automobiles and mechanical gadgets, and thus I must constantly make choices, wondering how I can pursue the aims of the Kingdom, and choose directives that intimately involve God’s good creation, totally aware of my ignorance. Yes, God loves his creation so much that he offered his only Son to buy it back, reason why my living should reflect that Love, including love for creation, because it too is divine, as are my fellow creatures.
Approaching the end,
I now live in a retirement home, amidst older folk, a grand opportunity to foster new connections, and be exposed to new situations, so I set out to learn about ‘aged living’, as I myself belong to that category.
Here’s what I learned so far.
I discovered that I need at least eight to nine hours sleep each night. I also read that my diet should contains less meat and more plants, as both contribute to overall longevity.
I repeatedly learn that I must have a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity every week, or at least 20-25 minutes each day.
Well in my 97th year, I believe that my long life has resulted from:
- Continuous openness to new ideas and new concepts, and weighing them in the framework of the New Creation, our life in the World to come: “Seek first the Kingdom”, is Jesus’ direct command to me. That means always seeking the welfare of creation.
- Put time into new and existing relationships. In 1975, I sold my business, our house, moved from city to country: started a new life, new career, with the approval of my life-long marriage partner, a woman I had known from childhood, and meet new people and discover new aspects in humanity.
- This move forced us as a family, to adjust to changing and challenging new situations, prevented us from living a routine existence, and exposed us to down-to-earth, literally, life, while experiencing God’s grace in an immense manner.
- Now, a widower for almost 5 years, I am learning to share my life with others, having moved again in a new environment, learning again to adapt to new surroundings, new people, while renewing old friendships, and sharing my experiences with others, in reciprocal ways, fully realizing that we only have an obscured view of the new and perfect life to come.
- I repeat: My body is holy. It is God’s personal gift to me, and therefore I must look after it, and, with that sanctified goal in mind, do everything possible to preserve it, improve it, and treat it with the utmost care involving constant prayer, remembering that I am a threefold unity: Body, Spirit and Soul.
To thrive in old age means to live a fulfilling, purposeful and satisfying life despite the challenges that accompany ageing. I try to follow Jesus direct prescription: “I have come to bring LIFE, and that to the full”. (John 10: 10).