None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862, American Essayist/Poet/Naturalist
The zest for life is essential to its quality. Quantity is an uncertainty, yet growing old is optional in so many more ways than we often realize. Aging is mandatory, but only our body must go from dust-to-dust while our spirits are everlasting. Souls full of expression have no measure of time, no clock to punch, or any calendar that applies to their longevity.
I have seen hundred year old eyes light up with a child's delight and as if by magic the years tumbled from their face. I have seen sweet ageless smiles and heard timeless laughter from elderly people that made us peers in every way when I returned whatever they offered. Meeting another soul is not the same as appearances might imply, enthusiasm on both parts makes numbers instantly irrelevant to the formula.
Enthusiasm means passion and there is no purer passion than the eagerness to really live. In one way we are held hostage by the body we inhabit, yet our body is not large enough to really hold a timeless soul. All parts of you are housed there; the child, the teen, and the adult in all its many forms and fashions interact, overlap, and intertwine if we validate their existence with attention.
Arnold Glasow called enthusiasm, "The energy that boils over and runs down the pot."
Norman Vincent Peale called it, "Fire under control."
Either way it takes a flame and fuel which each of us has to supply. Keep the fire burning...no matter what your age...and be truly ageless.
THINK ABOUT IT
LET IT GROW
THEN DECIDE
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