The following thoughts were shared by a friend of mine on the
question of what it is like to ‘be’ older and wiser. I think they
express something we can all learn from if we haven’t already.

“What’s
it like to ‘be’ my age? Besides the obvious physical changes, there is
a kind of release—a gentle meltdown—a relaxation that goes beyond where
any mere massage could take me.

• Gentleness, calm, quiet inside …
• Infinite space to allow people to Be…
• Grace to see what is moving and what isn’t all around me … To
  acknowledge what I’ve sensed and seen in people…And to let it be
  without trying to ‘make’ certain results happen…or certain
  actions/reactions occur…
• A sense that letting go is OK … That releasing what is in my life
  now will allow other things, other people, other opportunities to
  appear …
• Knowledge that being afraid of ‘having nothing’ appear is just old
  fear … And that since all I have to offer is love, if there are no
  takers, then it is time for me to leave and experience another life,
  another existence elsewhere.
• An inner knowing that what I offer (love) is needed
  everywhere…and that Christmas this year has nothing to do with what I
  could buy and everything to do with who I am being for others.

Much wisdom…

• That there is ‘nothing’ here to be attached to … That experience is all I can gather and ‘own’ in this journey.
• That to serve I must cherish the vehicle I’ve been blessed to live
  this life in…and try not to fill the energy gap with empty carbs or
  lazy days.
• That pleasure and pain are the edges of the same sword…and that I’m balancing both edges lightly in my heart.
• That thoughts are what pin us down … And that sometimes we need
  to ‘do’ something entirely different to change our thoughts. Our
  thoughts are the only way we have a chance to be free…
• That depths of feeling, time and space, the very air I breathe is as much of ‘nothing’ as I am.
• That sadness and joy mirror each other in every moment I am alive.
  Floating like a butterfly in ecstasy and serenely sad at how
  magnificent each of us is.

Most of all, I’m amazed with myself…that life can be so
enlivening–deliriously luscious—and that I am a being of such limitless
possibility. And I’m infinitely grateful that I may be able to ‘really’
serve others now…without controlling or manipulating blindly.

Relaxing into contentment not knowing what’s next…”