Growing Older is Tough

Getting older sneaks up on you. One day you’re invincible, the next you’re Googling “knee braces with free shipping.”

Growing older is tough. Really, really tough. So as is my style, let’s get into it and talk about how getting older is rough.

First. Metabolism changes. What we used to eat wholesale, while barely exercising, now clings to us in a lovely layer of cellulose we don’t exactly call cottage cheese. So now comes the hard lesson of restraint. And it is tough when food is so tasty. Still, I’m living proof it can be done – sloppily, as is my style.

Second. The way we think changes. Every new layer of life adds a new lens, letting us go back, reassess, reprocess emotions, and recognize patterns that were once hidden. The things we want to do also change, and in my opinion, slowing down is a gift.

Third. Joints. They ache, they complain, they hurt in the cold and when the weather shifts. Stamina loss is real, even when we keep active and hit the gym like I do (four times a week – three lifting, one cardio).

Fourth. White hair, baby. And oh dang, is it sexy to have and to hold. A little humor there.

Fifth. My favorite: we become like fine wine, aged in oak. With every choice made – or left undone – we forge a path others can see and walk in. We become examples of age as incense rising with our offering… or we stew in the stink of our grudges. In our mid to late forties, the flavor of our age begins to show: blessing or blight.

Sixth. We realize we’ve been fools all along, still desperately in need of teaching.

Seventh, and Sovereign. Age slows us down to savor Him. To learn Him. To know enough of love and loss to finally realize just how much He has given. Forgiveness – for ourselves and others – never looks the same again.

Age is like many things. It can fuel the furnace of self-destruction, or it can give the heart time to finally consider Him in us. It can spiral downward toward death, or be rebirth through a new lens, a new perspective.

And I’ll keep it freaking real: the arthritis??? I mean, what’s the point? The Lord knows I’m too stubborn to stop, so why waste time with the warning signs? (Yep, another joke, I think.)

Anyway, this is just Dust,

Musing about stuff.