Growing Young

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?

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:

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]

Posted in growing young , inspiration , life , quotes