At seventy-three yeas of age, I’ve lived what some people might call a long life. Although I do give some thought to the chronological process that got me here, I think of it more in terms of the struggles I’ve experienced. The health issues of the last two decades have been enormous. I’m sure I’m not alone in spending time replaying the countless challenges that have made life a struggle, a learning lab, a joy, and an opportunity to contribute to the history of this hit and miss corporation called humankind.
I remember those segments of my life: childhood, teenage years, young adulthood, middle-age and now those autumn years that crown it all. I look back on my life’s experiences before middle-age and I recall a certain amount of contention. I didn’t have a good handle on who I was and how I should present myself to the world. In fact, there was a plethora of masks presented to me that I could dawn. Society has always been at the ready to suggest and in some cases demand that you should be this or that. Interestingly, there was always an inner influence that quietly beckoned me to walk my own path. I think that was because I was brought up in an environment where people were guided by faith. They paid little to no attention to the popular influences of the day. My grandparents were poor people, who scratched out a living day-to-day. However, without the means to participate fully in any aspect of popular culture, they simply presented their truths to the world. Their ignorance of things going on around them wasn’t a problem. They had somehow captured the fine art of just being.
At my age, I’ve finally got it, most of the time anyway. I can now enjoy the art of being. I believe when one realizes that being is the state that allows us to listen to God, live from the inside out, and to not be bothered by all the distractions that prance about.
Dictionaries normally define being as: The nature or essence of a person. Sometimes one aspect of our being is developed at the expense of others. The second part of that definition begs the question of how we can be all that we can be if others are tugging at our arm with their products, snake oil, potions, and all manner of additives designed to improve us. Often, you’ve never given thought to what they are trying to sell, but they’re trying to convince you with every bone in their cunning bodies that this is what you need. What you need is to search your faith, look and listen to your inner voice, and be. There’s a great amount of peace and tranquility that comes from just being. Being is beautiful.
I’m old and blessed…hope you will be too.