Getting Old

I have reason to believe that getting old is not all it's cracked up to me by those who wax eloquently about the best is yet to be.  My body does not respond as well to what my spirit wants it to do.  It creaks and cracks.  It moves at a slower pace and getting down is avoided as much as possible because getting down means getting up.  Getting old is not for the fainthearted!   

But, it is not a destination as dismal as it might seem to be.  To be old is to know the blessing of accumulated years.  It is to know the blessing of a memory that journals the journey, records the moments of greatest joy and laughter, and declares that life is good even though it has knocked us to our knees more than a time or two.  

And, if we are truly blessed.. old age enables us to live immersed in a river of gratitude.  It is true enough that an old body speaks to the reality of life winding down, but then, the body was not given to us in the same manner as the soul.  The body is made for the dust, but the soul is made for eternity.  Maybe getting old is not so much about regretting the decline of the body so much as it is about relishing life as an old soul who is edging toward the fulfillment of the plan of God put in place at conception which is eternity.