I have to admit that this sixtieth birthday of mine was the hardest of all to accept, and yet, I am so grateful for all God has given me…a career that I enjoy, a husband I love, a supportive family, wonderful friends and so much more. Perhaps I am not only growing older but wiser. But I’m not so sure…so as I take a look back I realize this past year of my life (and yours) has been spent in an unprecedented time in which we were hopefully more reflective, discerning, accepting yet courageous, and yes, even wiser. Why?
We took stock…
Not only of necessities that were in shortage like meat and toilet paper…but of our mental, emotional and spiritual state. It seems we were more aware of how precious not only the necessities of life were but how precious our world, our health, our lives and those of others were, and hopefully we learned not to take them for granted.
We set priorities…
I don’t know about you but I decided, in realizing the above, I wanted to set priorities with my time…yes, there were many moments when I just wanted to escape the news and the reality of the pandemic and ‘crawl back under the covers’…but there were those too when I decided to be more useful to myself and others, by exercising and eating healthy, by doing my book coaching work to the best of my ability, by helping others, sometimes simply by reaching out and calling people to see how they were doing, by making an effort to see those loved ones I could and appreciating the time with them.
We were more mindful and grateful…
I also tried to spend more time with God, by being still, by being grateful and making agratitude list, by being more forgiving of myself and others, by listening to my body, mind, heart, and soul and feeding them with good things, and by truly appreciating the day as it passed by and the sights and sounds of nature around me (so many blue jays in our backyard this year! Such vivid colors in the flowers and trees!) If I fell short of these (and I did at times)…or you feel you did…no time is ever wasted. We can learn from our shortcomings of the past and then move on to do our best today and every day to come. We can always start over. I looked up various Bible quotes on wisdom and this one struck me the most as I overcame turning another decade older, of all places out of the Book of Job, the Bible story on which I based my first novel: “Wisdom is with the aged and understanding in length of days.†(Job 12:12) I pray this is true, but also know I need to work to make it so!
Lord, please keep reminding me how precious each day, each moment is and help me grow wiser with age.
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