For nearly the entire decade of midlife, we are unsure how much time and energy to invest in keeping our looks youthful, our bodies supple, our world expanding. And when it is early enough to believe we still have even the slightest chance of succeeding at it, we try, then over time, try harder yet to offset what, if left to nature’s devices, would be the organic process of growing old.
For those of us brave enough to walk through the gate to old age with eyes wide open, eventually we get to see not only the wrinkles and unsteady gait—we can gain second sight.
Call it character—that mix of acceptance, courage and perseverance that for many of us grows in tandem with the losses. However you name it, there can come a day when we recognize we’re changed, but feel only the sense of relief that beyond resignation, one can take comfort in who we have become.
We come to take private delight in ourselves just as one comes to prefer a handmade vase of flowers from one’s own garden over the designer bouquet meant for show. That is how, in the end, one comes to appreciate greatness and beauty in the old and infirm without recoil or dismissal, having been reduced by a long life to one’s better self.
To Continue Reading CLICK HERE
This excerpt provides a preview of the complete Older, Wiser, Fiercer: The Wisdom Collection, available now in paperback and Kindle eBook editions. To purchase, click HERE.
____________________________________
Join the conversation about Carol Orsborn’s Older, Wiser, Fiercer: The Wisdom Collection in the comment section below this entry. To comment on the Collection as a whole, click HERE and scroll to the comment section below the Prologue.
