"When I was just 17......."
Aging gracefully is a widespread self-esteem challenge . "Well, Happy Next Birthday! How old are you anyway?" "Oh, I'm just 17 ... again." It's a harmless game, denying our age, right? We play sensitive about our age as we get older, as we get further away from birth and closer to death. It's just a way to share our unease of growing older with people around us. Ah ... aging gracefully. Try as we might, time marches on and we get older just the same. I was reminded about this when I recently read that we are now seven million years old. That's at least a million years older than we were just one year ago. Of course, that does not mean you or I personally aged a million years in the past 365 days. That would be taking the term "personal growth" or "aging", gracefully or otherwise, too far. It would be either a b-rated horror movie or the phenomenal work of a genius. In fact, an early human skull found in the Sahara Desert is 7 million years old, pushing "the start of human evolution back at least another million years." For you and me, age is important. Denying one's age, or even being sensitive about it, can be disabling to many of us. Our years, our lines, our scars are part of who we are. They should be a matter of comfort and pride and even our joy. Happiness eludes us when we feel embarrassed, guilty, or even shy about any part of who we are. Aging gracefully is a matter of self-esteem? What's at stake here? Our happiness. Our self-esteem. Our zest and sense of daily joy. Our life satisfaction. It's time for each of us to take pride again in everything we are.
"When I was just 57....."
Try saying something like this: "I am pushing 50++ (or whatever age applies to you). I have lived 50++ years of happiness. I have survived 50++ years of challenges. I have experienced 50++ years of personal growth. I have learned so many life lessons from 50++ trips around the sun. (I have much more to learn, so Allah SWT, please let me live another 50++!) I am aging gracefully. I have thrived, mostly, during 50++ years. And I am proud of every one of those years." Youth has its own beauty, its own advantages, its own joy, its own reasons to be admired. So, too, does middle age. In fact, every age is important and every age is beautiful. How old are you right now? (Really, I don't mean "17 again".) Whatever age you are, right now that is the perfect age for you -- and the perfect age to be proud of. Oh sure, it is sort of harmless to kid about one's age. And many people joke about it harmlessly. But many of us also have a deep unease about our age and our aging -- an unease that can hold back our self-esteem and our happiness. Aging elegantly is another type of personal growth? Just surrender our youth gracefully with dignity and move on with the remaining years of retirement gleefully as “senior citizens” or “warga emas”! So, wishing you Mr Fuaad, A VERY VERY HAPPY NEXT BIRTHDAY...........and may you always "Forever young, I want to be, forever young....."
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