“If you are willing to face what scares you, it will broaden your world”.
One of the fears most people have is the throes of aging. We started this life with the bright eyes of youth. We can remember the thrills of seeing God’s handiwork, the beauty, the majesty of the trees, the glow of the sunlight glimmering over the crystal, clear waters. We can recall the intense desire to splash ourselves in all that nature has to offer.
As our youth begins to emerge through exploration, joys of learning about God’s handiwork, and about ourselves, we sense there is much more and we must experience it all. We learn that there are those who loves us and give us great joy; then, there are others on the other end of the spectrum, who do not like us or appreciate anything we have to offer them. And, with pain, we endure. We make our mistakes and yet, we continue to grow.
We think that life may never end. We hear those around us and sometimes we experience the loss of a loved one, or someone we didn’t know has died; we continue to enjoy those things that we saw at first with only our imagination to provide us an answer. And, yet, that still, youthful desire to explore and love, perhaps even more now, because life is precious; it becomes more as we experience all of the emotions, pain, enjoyment, anger, desires of love, appreciation for not just life, but for other people as well. A strange thing begins to enter into our daily life before we really recognize that it’s become a part of who we are. Not just our animals or any living creature dies some way; it is true of other people, as well.
But this story is really about what happens to us sometime in our life. We realize for certain that we will not live forever in this world. Our demise can be instantaneous, or it can be a slow process that we call the aging process.
The process of aging varies with each individual, but there is one common aspect. A point in time is reached where losses are experienced, there begins the age of losses — loss of income, loss of health, loss of friends, loss of spiritual well-being, loss of physical/physiological well-being, loss of psychological well-being, and loss of capacity to express one’s love. Vicki Schmall, Ph.D., Aging Concerns, stated that “Anything lost in which a person has invested their emotions, attention, time, energy, or dreams” leads to grief and mourning .
How we manage aging is within your realm to control. Next week, we will begin discussion on how we can manage.
Warm Regards, Dr. Mike