"I would regret life as an old person. Because as I am young, I cannot know what I will miss."
It is this mystery that excites me most. Where is this all going? And if indeed the seeming linearity of time is a construct, then how can I skip ahead and find out? The urgency, the doubt, the quiet sense that something is wrong—when I can step back and savor them like the weird funk taste that is essential to sauerkraut, then it all becomes a fun game. But obviously I can't stay there. I still have to respond to that email and pay that toll bill. I still have to switch my tax from Texas to Massachusets (impossible to spell I've decided). I still seem to worry about choking.
So as I turn 56 and notice the crazy network of wrinkles under my chin and the constellation of dim spots on my hands, I feel both: panic that this is ending, and marvel that this is going right to plan. Thanks for this meditation!
It seems to me you are not living an ordinary life Yehudis. It’s possible you will not experience an ordinary aging process. Some people hit 60 and feel like they’re just getting started. And the key to staying young in my experience is living so fully that you could go at any time feeling deeply fulfilled and grateful for what you’ve already had. Which comes back to not living an ordinary life.
"I would regret life as an old person. Because as I am young, I cannot know what I will miss."
It is this mystery that excites me most. Where is this all going? And if indeed the seeming linearity of time is a construct, then how can I skip ahead and find out? The urgency, the doubt, the quiet sense that something is wrong—when I can step back and savor them like the weird funk taste that is essential to sauerkraut, then it all becomes a fun game. But obviously I can't stay there. I still have to respond to that email and pay that toll bill. I still have to switch my tax from Texas to Massachusets (impossible to spell I've decided). I still seem to worry about choking.
So as I turn 56 and notice the crazy network of wrinkles under my chin and the constellation of dim spots on my hands, I feel both: panic that this is ending, and marvel that this is going right to plan. Thanks for this meditation!
It seems to me you are not living an ordinary life Yehudis. It’s possible you will not experience an ordinary aging process. Some people hit 60 and feel like they’re just getting started. And the key to staying young in my experience is living so fully that you could go at any time feeling deeply fulfilled and grateful for what you’ve already had. Which comes back to not living an ordinary life.