Aging...... Is there a trade-off..Or Regrets ?

I  would never trade my life, my 'historic' family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.  


As I've middle-aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. 
I've become my best own friend. 
I don't 'argue with myself' for eating that extra cookie. 
I am entitled to a treat, to be myself......, to be uniquely me.
I  have seen too many people leave this world too soon;  before they  understood the great freedom that comes with aging.  
Whose  business is it if I choose to read on the computer until 4 AM and  sleep until noon during weekends? 
I will dance with myself to  those wonderful tunes of the 60  &70's, and if I, at the same time,  wish  to weep over a lost love  ..... I will.
  I  will walk the beach in a swim suit that  is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves  with  abandon if I choose to, despite the  pitying glances from the  'jet set'.  
They, too, will get one day old....
  I  know I am sometimes  eccentric-forgetful.   
But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. 
And I eventually remember the important  things.
 Sure,  over the years my heart has been broken.  
How can  your heart not break when you lose all loved ones, or when somebody's child  suffers, or even when  somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car?   
But broken  hearts are  what give us strength and understanding and compassion.   
A heart  never broken is pristine and sterile and  will  never know the joy of  being imperfect.   I  am so blessed to have lived long enough  to have my hair turning gray, and to have my occasional laughs be forever  etched into deep grooves on my  face.
 So  many  have never laughed, and so many have died before they get to 'Know the Lord' or their hair could turn silver.
   As  you get older, it is easier to be positive.  
You care  less about what other people think..  
I don't question myself  anymore, continuously.    
I've even earned the right to be wrong.
 I like being older.  
It has set me free.   
I  like the person I have become.  
I am not going to live forever,  but while  I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what  could  have been,  or worrying about what will be.  
And I shall  eat dessert once in a while (if I feel like it).


Consideration....
May your friendship with (especially yourself), never come apart, and those relationships with others, -never come apart,especially when it is straight from the Heart !
   
Shalom