Life and Age

(I chose to use this picture because this is a new series I am watching and because I was just captivated by how amazing the effects and angle this scene was captured at. It shows a sense of age and how age changes a person through the span of forty years supposedly.)

Age is a number. It’s a number we don’t have to think of when asked or when we just want people to know. It’s meaningless. It doesn’t start carrying any weight or meaning until you open your mind and share what your values and mindsets are as a person. It doesn’t start carrying weight until you are aware that younger people than you are going through what you went through months, years, or even decades ago. You’ve been there. You’ve fallen and made mistakes that can’t be reversed and have the experience to teach others and warn them and protect them before they make similar mistakes.

Age also is such a powerful expresser of vitality and the cruelty of time. Life and age are both tightly knotted together and cannot be separated no matter what happens. Life forces us to grow and change. Age proves we’ve experienced too much that sometimes what we want to tell can never be finished or we can’t find words to describe how we feel. I find it so fascinating and just wanted to blog about this.

When we were young, we are so full of youth and vitality and energy. We speed through our best years of childhood and teen years in a jog. We are so innocent and have little to no worry about responsibility or anything else other than friends, school, and family. Emotions are shown freely. We cry freely and laugh freely and whine freely no matter if it’s at home or in public without holding back. This is a time of experiencing a lot of things for the first time with brimming anxiety and thirst for adventure. We were all hotheaded and stubborn and following our hearts to wherever it wanted to lead us to. We are filled to the brim with impatience. We were full of determination to chase after what we wanted and thought about consequences after. Learning what responsibility meant comes after a few bumps and scratches. Learning self-control through time.

When we reach mid-age, we have lost our youth and some of our energy. Our speed has slowed down by half and no longer see a need to catch up to anyone or run as we once needed to. We no longer have such a fiery desire to win in everything. We have seen our share of life from break-ups, to relationships, to different jobs, to meeting different people, to knowing who our true friends are, and learning how to it was for our parents to take care of an entire family. Many things in our eyes have changed its importance and we no longer feel as strongly as we did when in our youth. We start thinking of how silly we were only years ago and how much weight that lies on our shoulders. And how weary we’ve grown of the game of life. We learn that we won’t always get what we want and there are some dreams that can never come true. And sometimes what we settle for regardless if it is more or less of what we are satisfied with matters little as long as we did our best. To enjoy the failures, the successes, and the journey overall was most important.

When we’ve reached old age, all our youthful vitality is gone and energy levels are no longer what it once was long ago. We no longer have the energy to run and choose to just walk slowly and peacefully through old age. All those we love have either left us or have families of their own to take care of. We see everything with rarely any importance anymore. Our mind is at a state of calmness and peace. We feel that our work is done and we no longer have to compete ro fight with anyone for anything anymore. There are only the memories of the good days and years that accompany us through each day. The people that can no longer come back, the people who’ve we haven’t heard from in a long time, and the people made a difference in our lives will never be forgotten remain fresh in memory each day. We have a heart and mindset as clear as the purest water without a hint of dust. We are filled with nothing but compassion and love. The one thing we may have left in our hearts by this point is probably regret. Regret of not saying something to someone years ago or letting opportunities pass us by because of our own insecurities and morals as a person. Old age is a time of reflection on one’s own life to be put simply and if possible to make wrongs right.

This is how I see the three stages of our lives. No one has to agree but I thought it would be fun to share.