“70 is the new 50” was undoubtedly coined by someone in their 70s. Growing old means you are now one of those blue haired church ladies. It means you have achieved a lifetime of memories – good and bad. When you’re in your 70s you should have matured like a fine wine, but chances are you have already gone sour.

The pull of gravity has taken its toll. Everything from the top down has sagged or grown wider. Actually, I used to be six feet tall. Now everything has slipped down and I’m more like six feet wide. My mind tells me that I can do what I did in my twenties while my body 9 screams, “I can’t!”

I’ve been known to go in search of something only to forget what it was when I get there. I can remember the names of the kids I went to school with, but now I might forget the names of my grandchildren and I only have three of them. Short term memory is fading fast, but let me tell you about when I was 30 and raising three kiddos.

You spend more time in a doctor’s office than your mother did. In fact, you’ve become your mother! You thought you would be retired and sitting on the beach in Maui, but instead you continue plugging along trying to get by on your Social Security check each month.

Your hearing fails along with most of your other senses. You have lost your youthful glow. You are so much crabbier. You have given up trying to prove something. You’ve been there and done that. Liver spots have replaced acne. You’re going through the final metamorphous, before returning to dust.

Actually, I remember my fifties and they were a few of the worse years of my life. They were a mere thirty years ago, but some of my most difficult memories sit in that span of years. I guess you could say, I was finally growing up.

In spite of the many changes we endure in a lifetime, we can look forward instead of back. Our purpose on earth is finally coming close to an end and the promise of eternal life – free from pain, depression, sadness and tears- sounds pretty terrific. Like fine wine improves with age, so do we, if we let it. The aging process is good for many things. It allows life to simmer for a while until it’s finally finished to perfection.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” II Corinthians 4:16