Grow Old: Why Growth Matters More Than Age

The key to life is the word “grow.”

It has been said—if not growing, one is dying.

A sugarcraft model of an older woman in an armchair reading a storybook to three children Often one can see others waxing melancholia about the imminent arrival of an impending birthday and getting one more year older, yet again.

One submits this:

Be joyful at the arrival of each and every birthday—especially later in life when birthdays come much more quickly, counting down the days—while always keeping this important point in mind.

What is the final alternative to not having another birthday?!?!?

A moss-covered carved stone skull resting on a grave slab in a churchyard An unprecedented time to be alive, growing old offers a plethora of opportunity for the mature and wise to formulate, create, and build a strong and powerful clan with peaceful, thriving, knit communities sprinkled around the globe.

Like the animal and plant giving sustenance, one must sprinkle life every day with love (forgiveness) and to nurture and grow (explore the nooks and crannies of the unknown) until the end of one’s own time.

A rendering of glowing blue neurons and their branching connections spreading through darkness

One of the most fascinating things about life, if taking the time to look, is to see old friends also grow old, but having chosen not to grow in any meaningful way whatsoever at all. A cartoon of an old television set showing a wide-eyed figure with spiral eyes and a stitched mouth Coming to such a realization over time is slow, and before one knows it—it’s like meeting a person one no longer really knows, and no longer share interests.

A black-and-white photograph of a man in a suit covering his face with his hands, question marks rising from his head

Truly, the hands of time move in different direction—sometimes fast—sometimes slow.

A composite image of a huge clock face, one half consumed by fire and the other green and sunlit, a figure walking toward it

Regardless of age and life-stage, one could say there are people who may look like adults, but have clearly not grown or matured in any meaningful way.

This is know as “resting on laurels” or “set in one's ways.”

A black laurel wreath rendered as a simple graphic on white

For certain, if one would like to gain wisdom and perspective while traveling toward the final gate, and enlightenment, these two nasties are to be avoided like the plague.

As Master Music Molecule Manipulator Maestro Motsuri pointed out the other day—it’s so very true—“what did you do today?”

Follow the sun.

An hourglass containing an ammonite fossil, standing on a rock beneath a stone arch in the clouds, with bilingual text overlaid