What does that mean,
I’m getting old
What does that mean,
how should I feel about it?
I can find the morning sky within me
and spring storms –more than ever
What does that mean, I’m getting old
What does that mean,
how should I feel about it?
I can find so much confusion within myself
and I am impatient –more than ever
What does that mean, I’m getting old
What does that mean
and how should we understand it?
I can see traces of life on me
but I’m taking new paths -more than ever
My hair is already gray
but the wind blows it into my face as ever
and everything that a mature person no longer has to think about
I think about that -more than ever
What does that mean,
I’m getting old
What does that mean,
how should I feel about it?
I can find the morning sky within me
and spring storms –more than ever
Questions that matter.
I think as we age we hang in a kind of liminal space where we are being beckoned towards new and often not all that comfortable spaces, so we straddle the memory and comfort of the past as we choose to remember it, and somewhat fear the unknowns of advancing age . But we get glimpses all the time of what might be possible in living in a different kind of peace, knowing we see things from both sides now. Your poem fits perfectly with what I think about more and more frequently. ❤️
I am very close to my 60’s birthday and it’s not that I don’t like the number, it’s more that it puzzles me how quickly it happened. Will the number on paper, ever match with the number I have in my head?
I have a decade on you! Sometimes it feels easier as I get older, but I try not to think about it too much. 🤪
No-one should ever tell you how to feel, how to think, or how to act, but there are plenty who will try to do so. I have to admit to getting older, but I refuse to get old!
I feel old and older sometimes, that’s the part I cannot deny. I am different from my grandmother, even though I look just like here, just more colorful. Times have changed and now I am allowed to just be…still it puzzles me a bit.
Reflections with which many of us can identify. One of life’s later adaptations
Thank you, Derrick. I had a feeling I might not be the only one.
Definitely not
Love this!
I love this. Recently, within the last year, I have felt the confusion of how I am supposed to feel at being ‘old’ when I haven’t, until now, felt very old. But old is creeping up on me while I’m not paying attention.
That’s what I am struggling with as well. How am I supposed to ‘act’ old if I don’t feel it? And how do I deal with it when I feel it?
The ageing process is not always an easy one, especially once we fall prey to various aches and pains that are debilitating in their own right. Our attitude is more important though: I tend to take each day as it comes, am still learning not to sweat the small stuff and am having to be increasingly patient with an increasingly frail husband. I revel in the joy of living, of experiencing rain, of small triumphs and in the love of our family.
I find aging very interesting. It beats the alternative and I know too many who have been denied to live through this important stage of life. “Gone too soon” we say and we are correct.
The last chapter, perhaps in every book the most important. That’s when we find out what it was all about. 🙂
I am sorry to hear about your husband’s health issues and I am glad you have the right attitude to deal with it.
Substitute the word “mature” or “experienced” for old. Too many people look on old as being a disability instead of a super power. Have a great day. Allan
I happen to like the word ‘mature’ that’s why I used it in my poem. It comes from the Latin word mātūrus=to become more developed mentally and emotionally, to behave in a responsible way, to ripen (just like the cheese).
Have a great day. Bridget
You are not old as long as you are feeling and doing what a young person can do,, Age is just a number
Perhaps that’s why the poem is called “more than ever”?
Exactly!
Good to know I am not the only one who is a bit confused at times.
💛