Embracing the Aging Process as a Spiritual Journey

I have some good news for you! Aging is happening every minute, right here, right now, all of us are getting older, and we have been since our birth. That is good news because it means we are still here with the extraordinary gift of being alive. However, because time seems to speed up as we age, you will be old before you know it. It is part of the cycle of life, and though modern medicine is finding some ways to improve longevity, we are in spite of everything, still aging. Many people start exploring spirituality in their mid-thirties. And by age 50 most of us become aware of how quickly our life is passing by. I have found that rather than resisting the aging process, it is a blessing to embrace it as a spiritual journey. At 50 many people feel like they are “over the hill” and all will be going downhill from there. I know I did. It is true that there are probably less years ahead after 50 than there were before, but life is far from over and there many opportunities to connect more deeply with Life.

My mother was very active and always looked younger than she was She never liked people to know how old she was. When she turned 80, I wanted have a party for her, but she refused. She didn’t want any celebration at all, so we honored her wishes. When she turned 85, my brother and I planned a surprise party for her. Fortunately, we knew that she loved surprises (some people don’t), and we wanted to celebrate her many years of life experience. We invited her family and friends and exactly 85 showed up. We had a wonderful celebration which she loved, and finally everyone knew her age.
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