No one’s promised tomorrow. We’re guaranteed nothing and anything more is a bonus.
But many of us live to an age where we have a profound realization that we’re no longer who we once thought we were. You suddenly feel out of place with things that were once familier— people, hobbies, and general interests that have seemed to pass you by… or the other way around.
Youth teaches you that everything, in a material sense, is temporary. A beautiful lesson, and possibly one of the most beneficial in life. Because understanding this, truly, let’s you see the span of your life for what it really is: a moment. An untold number of years bring this point into perspective as the years begin to grow shorter than you once felt they were. But the truly inquisitive know that something isn’t beautiful because it lasts, but by the recognition of what it is and what it can do.
What it comes down to in its simplest form is a grappling with identity. It’s something that there’s really no time limit for, and in a way, couldn’t be, due to the constant and evolving nature that is interwoven with the human life. To stay the same without change is to remain stagnant and underdeveloped, but how do you accommodate growth as a new part of who you are, and who you will become? Surely there is a balance where you maintain your “you-ness” while leaving room for the continually improved versions. Billboards and adverts of beauty & youth betray this universal truth, but only those who stand against the wind know the strength of it (This is a topic I see pervading a multitude of ideas, best left for another article).
No matter the time or place, era or country, an age old revelation always presents itself: your life is finite and your time actually matters. The people you spend it with, the goals you aspire towards; it helps shape and refine you, hopefully leading to an understanding of what actually defines you— it’s out there for all of us and it calls to us even as we sleep, always pursuing us even when we neglect it.
Youth grows into wisdom, and with it, an opportunity to sit down with things in your mind that make you uncomfortable. This seems to me what many mean by “aging gracefully”, yet it has nothing to do with your physical appearance… or maybe it does? It’s commonly known that the mind is a powerful place that can actually sometimes promote healing to the point of “medical miracles”, and even convince your body of having an affliction known as a Phantom Pain. So much so that you can actually develop symptoms of the thing you fear. I’ll leave the dissecting of such medical complexities to much more qualified purveyors of medicinal truths, but I would like to end this bit with what the point is: if your mind can cause physical transformations documented by medical professionals, what can a habitual mindset over years, decades, or a lifetime do to your appearance? I’m sure the answer holds atleast a little surprise to most, myself included. Perhaps physiognomy and just simple observance can offer a clue here.
This all comes back to, however, not medical facts and self-prescribed prognoses, but rather the everchangimg nature of the human condition. That sort of thing (the human spirit) sometimes takes more than facts on paper to be convinced of what it may one day believe. And going further, we often have a tendency to confuse an emotion for a state of being; feelings we had as we experienced things for the first time with others doing the same, all trying to hold onto what we once knew. But the “letting go” of something is sometimes the only way towards mastering it. Or at the very least, contentment.
By accepting your condition, you’re afforded exactly what’s necessary to move through this life: a peace with your decision that gives way to a renewed confidence towards the things you previously put on the back burner. Wisdom and experience come only to those willing to learn, and a vain holding onto things that had their time only stunts your growth into who you should already be becoming.
Looking ahead is where hope is, and it never reminds you of what you’ve lost — only ways you can become fuller in spite of it.
Take a moment and remember:
The beauty of someone you emphatically cherish. Pay attention to how the light paints their face, how their words meet the airwaves to resonate with you in feelings you find yourself feeling even now. Each of you are allowed this time, like breath on a mirror, to crystallize this moment in all of time and space. Love: so strong that everyone can feel it, so specific that only two individuals can capture the very way it’s tattooed upon your heart. The chance, the intent, the warmth, the time.. all confer a weight to this moment only you can hold.
This sort of love looks different if left alone between two people over the years, but no less beautiful. It’s the details you can’t put into words that only time helps illuminate. And to see things we care about for how they were always meant to be, to be the ones afforded the chance to steward them unto fruition with that honor forever on our souls, is the reward given those who can see the beauty in things that once were, while looking forward to what they will be.