How well do you fit this picture of being young?
“Youth is not a period of life, but an attitude of mind; it is an expression of the will, of the power of the imagination and of the intensity of the feeling. It represents the victory of courage over cowardice, of the spirit of adventure over the temptations of laziness.
We do not grow old because we have lived for a certain number of years; we grow old if we give up our ideals. The passing years indeed tempt us to give up our high ideals, but the soul prompts us otherwise. Prejudices, doubts, fears and hopelessness are enemies who gradually take us to the ground and turn us to dust before we are dead.
Those are young who can still be astonished and enthusiastic. Those who still, like a child hungry for knowledge, ask “And then?” Those who challenge events and rejoice in the game of life. “You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your self-confidence, as young as your hope, as old as your depression.
You will stay young as long as your readiness to take up a challenge remains: receptive to the beautiful, the good and great; receptive to the message of Nature, of others, of the mysterious.
Should your heart one day become corroded by pessimism, eaten away by cynicism, then may God bless you. You have lost your life.” (Gustav Kaser)
A lady of the parish was asked how she felt now she was 68 and heard herself say “The same as always. I’m only aware of being me – not of being any particular age.” She laughed as she told me how she had surprised herself at her answer – but, she said, it was true that within herself that was her awareness. Are you like that – not young, not old, not middle-aged, just you? Those who love you, including God, would smile and say “You are you.”
God bless you and us, ageless,
Fr John
(23rd June 2019)
Related Links: Popular Reads and Fr John’s Parish Newsletters
