Staying Young

by Deanna 

Young children are such joy-filled, breath of happiness creatures, always eager to embrace life in all its mystery and magic.  Everything is new and exciting, everything - a bubble, a snowflake, a mud puddle, a flower - is a gift. But something in the process of growing up that magic and wonderment is no longer part of our make-up.  Just the mere process of becoming an adult and living in the adult world with all of it's hardships and day to day struggles we become encrusted, hard and sometimes jaded.  We lose our joy, our eagerness to embrace life.  We begin to trudge along, instead of skipping, we withdraw instead of explore and say "too old for that".  We fail to even get down on our knees to discover the small world right beneath our feet.

This retreating is so common that when we meet a vibrant, joy-filled older person, she stands out as a singular exception.  We don't have to lose that happiness or eagerness of youth.

Dawna Markova shares a story in the book "Simple Pleasures of a Garden" about such a woman.  "Several years ago I was walking in March along a gravel road that led to the ocean in Rhode Island. A very old and thin woman came hobbling down a driveway toward me.  I waved and continued walking, but as I passed, she grabbed my arm, turned around and began to pull me in the direction of her house. I instantly thought of the witch in Hansel and Gretel, and tried to pull back, but that only made her clutch tighter around my wrist.  She didn't cackle, so I relented.

"She didn't say a word, in fact, until we approached her house: a shingle-style cottage with green shutters and a front lawn erupting everywhere in purple crocus. She released me there, throwing up her arms and shouting, "Look at the splendor!  Isn't it a miracle?"

This old woman was open to the magic, beauty and joy of life.  Her sparkling eyes and eagerness to share made her and everything around her more vibrant and alive.  We just need to reach for that sense of gratitude, when we do, we can become like little children again, seeing the world for the first time.

"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."  ~  Ralph Waldo Emerson