What does it feel like to be old?

Published May 10, 2024 by tindertender

The other day, a young person asked me: – What did it feel like to be old?

I was very surprised by the question, since I did not consider myself old. When he saw my reaction, he was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question. And after reflection, I concluded that getting old is a gift.

Sometimes I am surprised at the person who lives in my mirror. But I don’t worry about those things for long. I wouldn’t trade everything I have for a few less gray hairs and a flat stomach. I don’t scold myself for not making the bed, or for eating a few extra “little things.” I am within my rights to be a little messy, to be extravagant, and to spend hours staring at my flowers.

I have seen some dear friends leave this world, before they had enjoyed the freedom that comes with growing old.

Who cares if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 in the morning and then sleep until who knows what time?

I will dance with me to the rhythm of the 50’s and 60’s. And if later I want to cry for some lost love…I will!

I’ll walk down the beach in a swimsuit that stretches over my plump body and dive into the waves letting myself go, despite the pitying looks of the bikini-wearers. They’ll get old too, if they’re lucky…

It is true that through the years my heart has ached for the loss of a loved one, for the pain of a child, or for seeing a pet die. But it is suffering that gives us strength and makes us grow. An unbroken heart is sterile and will never know the happiness of being imperfect.

I am proud to have lived long enough for my hair to turn gray and to retain the smile of my youth, before the deep furrows appeared on my face.

Now, to answer the question honestly, I can say:

I like being old, because old age makes me wiser, freer!

I know I’m not going to live forever, but while I’m here, I’m going to live by my own laws, those of my heart.

I’m not going to regret what wasn’t, nor worry about what will be.

The time that remains, I will simply love life as I did until today, the rest I leave to God.

~ Author Unknown

One Life

Published March 18, 2024 by tindertender

I counted my years and found that I have less time to live from here on than I have lived up to now.
I feel like that child who won a packet of sweets: he ate the first with pleasure, but when he realized that there were few left, he began to enjoy them intensely.

I no longer have time for endless meetings where statutes, rules, procedures and internal regulations are discussed, knowing that nothing will be achieved.

I no longer have time to support the absurd people who, despite their chronological age, haven’t grown up.

My time is too short:
I want the essence,
my soul is in a hurry.
I don’t have many sweets
in the package anymore.
I want to live next to human people,
very human, who know how to laugh at their mistakes, and who are not inflated by their triumphs, and who take on their responsibilities.
Thus human dignity is defended and we move towards truth and honesty.

It is the essential that makes life worth living.
I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch hearts, people who have been taught by the hard blows of life to grow with gentle touches of the soul.

Yes, I’m in a hurry, I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.

I don’t intend to waste any of the leftover sweets.
I am sure they will be delicious, much more than what I have eaten so far.

My goal is to reach the end satisfied
and at peace with my loved ones
and my conscience.

We have two lives.

And the second begins when you realize you only have one.

Beautiful poem by Mario de Andrade (San Paolo 1893-1945) Poet, novelist, essayist and musicologist.
Via Sisterhood connecting as one.🐝

Forever Young

Published October 10, 2023 by tindertender

The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.

I am still every age that I have been.

Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be . . .

This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages . . . the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide . . .

Far too many people misunderstand what putting away childish things means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I’m with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grown-up, then I don’t ever want to be one. Instead of which, if I can retain a child’s awareness and joy, and be fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup.

~ Madeleine L’Engle

Art: Reina Yamada
instagram.com/reina_yamada

It’s sad to me when I give reign to my inner child, and I watch the faces of those who are in the path of her purity, her love.

It’s my responsibility to be in environments which are safe to give and receive pure, innocent love. Unmolested by lower vibrational energies.

If my inner child is afraid to show her face because of judgement, I won’t bring her around. I won’t BE around others who are unsafe for my inner, fully loving and accepting, inner child.

What Does It Feel Like To Be Old?

Published May 10, 2023 by tindertender

The other day, a young person asked me: What did it feel like to be old?