Today I completed my 63rd orbit of the sun. Actually, I won't have finished it until nearly midnight tonight, but that's just splitting hairs.
So I'm relatively old and for many people that isn't something to celebrate. We live in an age when youth is celebrated, particularly in the west, and every one is doing their best to look younger. Youth is good, old is bad seems to be the philosophy of the age. The strange thing I have found is that when I was young I used to be told that I had no experience, but when I got older and more experienced I was told that was I was too old! Such is life.
Trying to hang on to youth is a pointless persuit. You can spend a fortune trying to look younger, or time worrying about aging but it is all in vain. Although you can do things to look younger, you can't change the fact that you are getting older. This rock we are on keeps flying around the sun and time stops for no one.
I think the best thing to do is rather than live with regret because time is passing by, to celebrate it. I think how fortunate that I have made it to 63. So many people never manage to get here. If I had lived in the early 1900s, the chances of making it past my 50s would have been small, especially with the various health issues I've had over the years.
I feel privileged to have been born into the age, and a part of the world, I was born in, and have had the benefit of increased medical care and scientific progress. I am grateful to have had family and friends who have been there for me during the good times and the bad. And as a Christian, I'm grateful that I have a faith that gives me confidence that I'm not heading towards oblivion.
So today I will celebrate the last day of my 63rd orbit of the sun. I will enjoy time with my family and look back on life, the good and the bad and be grateful that I have survived this long. And at the end of the day I will look forward to starting my 64th trip around the sun and hope I complete it.
Photo credit GuillaumePreat, Pixabay