Senescence

Contrary to youth-bound cultural assumptions, most older people live full, vital, active lives. They have schedules, goals, routines, that keep them busy, dedicated and fulfilled..The question is: Are we suppose to continue accomplishing these tasks? Are we growing enough as we are aging physically?

In the fullness of youth, everyone is eager to conquer the world, to launch into projects, venturing out on new things and more. One is very energetic, aggressive, determined to achieve what is necessary to mature and support a family. As these challenges are met, people find themselves entering a less pressured phase of life – Spiritual Life. One can set aside time for reflection and deepening, time to take stock of oneself. We need to look at aging from a spiritual point of view. Growing older offers us a time for reflection and looking at the deepest meaning of loss and change which at times because of our functional lifestyle we do ignore.

Growing older gives us an opportunity to practice dispositions essential for growth in the spirit such as gentleness, joy, gratitude and surrender. In this sense there will be no drastic difference between enrichment for elderly and enrichment for any age group. Spiritually speaking, we are always “on the way”. Our life is always in formation. We are growing old together. The difference resides quite simply in the fact that older people are further along the way. The older we are, the more ready we are to ask the right questions and to come together to seek the answers…Amen