A Touch of Grey

Time heals all wounds.  Things get better with time.  Give it time. Over and over, we are told the answer to disappointments and disruptions is the passage of time.  However, I know no one (except the truly young) eager at the prospect. The reason, of course, is that time can also be the enemy.

My observation is that things get older with time.  The dream of yesterday is the fleeting thought of today and the distant memory of tomorrow.  Benjamin Disraeli said, “Youth is a mistake. Middle-age is a struggle. Old age is a regret.”  I know a lot of folks struggling under the burden of time (me included).

The upside of passing time is that we learn valuable lessons accumulating to form the magus of our knowledge.  There is simply no way to learn the lessons of experience without experience. Older people are not smarter than younger people, but they know more.  A lot of what we call the wisdom of age is pattern recognition. It comes from having seen similar situations in the past. For those of us farther along on the continuum, the secret is to wear it well.  

It can be difficult to be comfortable in your own skin.  Life is hard enough without it changing all the time. We learn the playbook only to find the rules committees met and changed the game.  Truthfully, there are few things you can count on in life

It’s good to have a God who remain the same.  We age, but He never does. As we change, we find Him waiting at the next level for us.  Amid the uncertainties of life, we need an anchor. It’s what holds us steady on the sea of existence.  That’s our God, and He is working His purpose through us. As we move along, we find that what’s next is what we’ve been waiting for.  God has been working, and the next stage suits us.

Every silver lining has a touch of grey.  Here’s hoping you wear it well.   

Sterl