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| My gorgeous niece loving life! |
"In our minds," he said, "we need never 'grow old.'
It's the wrong expression, isn't it, if you think about it:
When we stop growing, we are old!" Gus MacPherson
Have you ever read a quote that resonates with you
and sits within your heart for a very long time?
This is what happened to me when I read these words
spoken by the character of Gus in the Stephanie Kallos
novel Broken for You. Gus is an octogenarian who works
part time {for fun}, takes a senior's yoga class, attends lectures,
concerts, art exhibits, takes classes at the community college
and sings in a barbershop quartet. He is a Scotsman
and wears his kilt to formal affairs.
He has a lot of friends.
He doesn't act "old."
 |
| This is how I pictured Gus. {Sir Sean Connery turns 80 in August!} |
He laughed a lot
 |
| Still doing yoga |
This weekend I was sipping coffee
in one of my favorite coffee houses,
when I looked up and
read a banner that suggested this:
Be the first to apologize
Plant lots of trees
Sleep under the stars
Dare to adventure
Visit 22. 55'S, 43. 12'W
Spend time with your kids, tomorrow they're a day older
Run your feet, not your mouth
Don't wait for New Year's to make a resolution
Make time for silly
Marshmallows have no nutritional value, and that's o.k.
Have a favorite charity
Listen first, talk second
GROW YOUNG.
Thoughts of growing older {or YOUNG}
have been on my mind a great
deal lately since my father in law landed
in the hospital with a broken hip a month ago,
and has been at a rehabilitation center for the last month.
When I visit him there, some patients light up
when I smile at them in the hallways
and others stare blankly ahead, as if all their smiles
had been used up, long ago.
As if they are no longer in the game.
They aren't interested in stars or silly or marshmallows.
What keeps my father in law in the game?
Actually, not what, but who...
She does.
They first bonded when Gracie spent a holiday with him.
Hours of playing and cuddling and napping together
forged a link forever strong for both of them.
I take her to visit Jim in the rehab center
and she has been his special girl, even there,
sitting patiently with him and somehow knowing
that he can't play with her, right now.
Are you growing older or are you growing young?
Physically we can do what we need to
in order to maintain our outer selves, by eating
healthy and taking care of our bodies as we should.
But time marches inexorably on
and that we cannot change.
But on the inside
Are you growing young?
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| My lovely second cousin! |
Things that help me grow young....
Cycling on a sunny day with the wind blowing through my hair ~ I'm seven again
Thrusting my face into a branch laden with lilacs... I'm five
Laughing with my husband.....I'm twenty and in love
Blowing bubbles on the deck....I'm three and just learning how
Turning the car radio up loud and singing along.....I'm ten and following the top 40
Nuzzling my son's neck as I tuck him in....He's brand new and I'm a young mom
Munching on an apple as I read a good book.....I'm twelve and home from school
Trying a new craft with my daughter....I'm finger painting and we are both two
Walking on a beach with my toes in the sand.....I'm four and in awe of the water
Alexandra Stoddard, a favorite author of mine,
summed up the art of growing young
in her book Living a Beautiful Life.
Says Alexandra:
Says Alexandra:
Emily Dickinson lived most of her life
in one house in Amherst; yet she wrote,
"I dwell in possibility." In your own style,
in a noncomercial, nonpolitical, non-spectacular way,
you can forge individual rituals
which can give you the greatest gift of all,
the art of living richly and fully.
Grow young, today, my friends. See each day as an adventure
that you can make meaningful in ways that speak to you.
Laugh. Seek. Eat a marshmallow. Hug a pet.
Smell the flowers. Make something. Dwell in possibility.
And never, ever,
stop growing.
As we grow old...the beauty steals inward.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
PS: 22. 55'S, 43. 12'W is
Rio De Janero
[Images 2-4 : Google; 5 and 9: Masonic Homes;
Others: Privet and Holly]
[Images 2-4 : Google; 5 and 9: Masonic Homes;
Others: Privet and Holly]
Related posts for Growing Young:
- undefined
- The Good Life
- It's All Clear
- The Question
- Grass-stained Knees
- Full Circle
- Waste Not
- Healthy Reali-TEA
- Running the Track
- Motherhood: Getting to the Point
- Can You Hear Me Now?
- Lumpy
- Gone Living
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