On the other hand, 62.5 is my age right now and I have mixed feelings about that number. When I shaved this morning, the face I saw in the mirror was very different from the face that had seemed perfectly familiar until about 10 years ago.
It was around that same time (10 years ago) that I went to my doctor with shoulder pain. Forgetting his bedside manner he casually observed, "Getting old is not for sissies." Recently, I returned the favor by casually saying the same thing when he was kvetching about his memory.
Mindfulness practice, since it's always about cultivating the ability to be fully alive now, has a whole bag of tricks to help us 'age' gracefully. Maybe I should say a whole bag of good medicine.
My doctor is right, growing old really isn't for sissies. Growing old is an adventure and so it's for adventurers--spelunkers, climbers, decathletes, mothers, fathers, pilgrims, magi.
Below is the lectio we used for this morning's meditation group. Like the last couple of posts, it's from Ron Siegel's The Mindfulness Solution.
Wise words follow...
---
As we age, most of us long for some aspect of the
good old days. We envy those with younger bodies who have their whole life
ahead of them. We don't realize that on average younger people aren't actually
happier. Monitoring the moods of people ages 19-94, researchers found that
older people experienced positive emotions longer and had negative emotions
subside more quickly than younger people.
As long as our basic needs are met, much of our
well-being or misery has more to do with how we interpret our situation than
with the situation itself.
What we learn through mindfulness practice is that
it's our attachment to how we see ourselves and our circumstances, rather than
age-related changes themselves, that cause much of our difficulty with growing
older. Once again, it is our wish to avoid unpleasant experience that's at the
root of our unhappiness.
What we learn from mindfulness practice is that it
is both possible and rewarding to face hard realities. In ancient texts,
students are encouraged to meditate on the following points:
1. I
am sure to become old. I cannot avoid aging.
2. I
am sure to become sick. I cannot avoid sickness.
3. I
am sure to die. I cannot avoid death.
4. All
things dear and beloved to me are subject to change and loss.
5. I
am the owner of my actions; I will become the heir of my actions.
