The Secret Gift of Growing Old

 

Growing old—

a gift not all of us are afforded.

 

Our bodies begin to fall apart—

a tooth here,

a hip joint there.

 

We are but a car breaking down—in real time—before our own eyes.

 

The emergency light is on—

and there isn’t much we can do but watch it happening.

Or can we?

 

I don’t mean “fixing it,” either;

our physical demise was imminent before our first breath.

 

I mean to say:

there is more to us than this decaying vehicle.

 

I mean to say:

we are not the same thing as a car.

 

I mean to say:

we are not—solely—our bodies; a thing.

 

We are soul—

too.

 

And soul is connected to, in relationship with,

that which is: immortal, ineffable, infinite.

 

Notice: all of these descriptors speak to what is not—

not mortal

not expressable

not finite

 

Soul is beyond the confines of language to describe.

 

But I do know that this finite, decaying body is not the entirety of my story.

When it ends, there will be some-thing left-over;

a no-thing.

Consciousness.

 

But a consciousness that was here before my body entered the scene;

and which will be around after.

 

And it’s this awareness that the aging process can teach us

(if we’re able to step outside of our fears long enough to witness it).

 

That while our birth may necessitate our death,

life

goes

on.

 

 

www.alexobed.com