Then and Now.

Breaking the Mirror

“…I sit down in lotus position,

Meditating, meditating for nothing.

Suddenly a voice comes to me:

     ‘To stay young,

      To save the world,

      Break the mirror.’”

                                  Excerpt from ‘Body and Soul’

                                  By Nano Sakaki

         In church yesterday, someone asked for prayers for an uncle who had hip replacement surgery a few days ago.  He was doing fine; she just wanted prayers that he continues to do well.  He’d mowed his son’s yard just a few days before the surgery and was accustomed to being active.  His family had celebrated his birthday in the hospital—his 98^th birthday! 

         I am in a Facebook group with folks who graduated from a particular High School that no longer exists.  All summer there have been parties and reunions of various classes.  People have posted photos of boys in cuffed jeans and girls in plaid skirts with ‘big-hair.’  They have also posted photos of those same people today.  Oh, my.

         When I look in the mirror, I hardly recognize myself.  It’s amazing what time and gravity can do to a body, isn’t it?  The body changes but the spirit doesn’t, just like the old guy whose hip was replaced at 98.  That man doesn’t look in the mirror and see a man too old to be out mowing grass.  He probably doesn’t look in the mirror at all except to shave.  Making comparisons between who we were at seventeen and who we are now is a fool’s exercise. 

         I don’t know about you, but High School is not remembered as ‘glory days’ by me.  I had good friends and managed to skid by in my classes but I wouldn’t go back to being an adolescent for all the tea in…you know.  Aging has its down side, but one of the pluses is that you sort of get over yourself as you age.  With any wisdom at all, you realize you’re never going to be that ‘cute’ girl again, or that ‘studly’ guy, so you may as well be who you are; an older person, satisfied with life, with some wrinkles and a little more waist than there used to be, but still fit and vigorous.  It’s all good.  I want to be mowing my lawn at 98---and not in make-up either.

                                  Breaking the mirror,

                                  Jane