On Being 50

I could be here all year posting now that I have gotten back into vault where my word treasures are stored and locked away.... I am the keeper of the keys again.

Yesterday was a good day for me. I received some free cards from Guidepost in the mail. I like getting them. They have little stories to tell on the back. The top card was cute birthday wish with puppies in a basket. When I read the 1st line on the back, I screamed, "I don't believe this...!" to my husband and son. "Just because I turn 50, there it is in black and white everywhere I look...!" This is what the card said:

Well, this is it - the year I turn fifty. I'm not sure I'm ready to be fifty.

I was ready to turn forty. At forty, you're just hitting your stride, poised at the demographic meridian of life and finally ready to put all your learning years to good use. At thirty, I was simply relieved to have survived my twenties. At twenty... well, at twenty I didn't even think about birthday milestones (Except maybe turning twenty-one). Yet here I am on the precipice of fifty, and for the first time in my life I find myself troubled by a birthday. Am I one of those foolish middle-aged men trying to hang onto youth?

Here are three things I'm trying to keep in mind as I approach fifty: First, we don't live forever. Second, life is a gift, and it should only grow more valueable as we grow older. And, third, the only truly important thing in life is love.

Without love we die, at least on the inside. Nothing makes us feel better than love. When love is called for, nothing will substitute, and when we try to substitute something for love, it always ends up badly. Without love, we cannot know each other and we cannot know God.

In fifty years, I've received an incredible amount of love, a staggering half century of it, and I've tried to give love as best as I can, often clumsily and fitfully, even foolishly, to other humans, to animals, to ideas and beliefs, to my work, my country and to God. Love moves like the speed of light; it never ages, even when we do. So, I tell myself, if you want to hold on to your youth, hold on to love. Even as I near fifty, my learning years are not entirely over.
-Edward Ginnan-

Another quote of the day:
There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you. ~Carol Mattau~