Fountain of Youth

Older vs. Better 

We all know that wine gets better with age, who is to say that the same doesn’t apply to people.  I would even argue that it does.  If you want to be terribly negative and equally unpopular at the same time, you could make an argument for the opposite case.

• Aging, in spite of the inevitable [challenges], is a long process and has its rewards. Amid all the challenges, often the rewards not only balance things out, but most individuals experience a greater degree of well-being and a deeper sense of meaning than they do when they are younger. I often find I get a little taste of that. I feel when I’m with older individuals, I’m as close to the fountain of knowledge as one can get. – By Maia Szalavitz 

When you are young (younger/youngish), you definitely enjoy the youth but don’t always appreciate the treasure that you have (the period of your life that you are living in).  Youth is seldom appreciated by young people.  If they did they would take better care of themselves.  One great example is the beautiful people that spend a good portion of their day working out (running, at a fitness center, riding bicycles, etc.), only to spend excessive time hanging out with their crowd at nightclubs, doing tequila shots, gel shots, and otherwise poisoning their bodies.  For those young ones that don’t go night clubbing, and are more serious about their bodies (body building) there is the negative side of supplements, steroids, etc.  I am not saying it’s all bad, however, with time most of it proves to have a negative effect.  Youth is better appreciated by the more mature state in everyone’s life.

I’m sure you’ve seen a child being hyper and someone will comment if only we could bottle their energy.  That type of lament is most common amongst those of us that have reached a point in our lives where we have arrived; we are older, smarter, hopefully wealthier, and the only things we can’t buy are youth and energy.

A very popular quest for ever has been for the proverbial “Fountain of Youth.”  There is such a thing, and we all have access to it (many of us don’t for long), it’s called “our minds.”  I definitely have a great time every time I visit.  I enjoy reviewing my life (accomplishments, mistakes, and even the trivial parts of my existence that complete me).  Some trivial yet impacting parts of my life include the music that I listened to growing up, and the movies that I enjoyed along the way.  For some of us, we need to take advantage of our memory banks while we still have the ability and capability to access the files, some of us are more fortunate than others.

If you have some things in your past that you use to do and it brought you pleasure, stop and ponder why you don’t do it anymore.  If it’s mostly because life gave you a plateful and you no longer had the time, perhaps the merry-go-round has slowed down a bit, and you can pick-up where you left off.  I know that personally my life has changed so much in recent years that I am now doing many of the things that I’ve always wanted to do.  The best is yet to come…