{"id":24380,"date":"2014-01-03T23:41:51","date_gmt":"2014-01-04T05:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=24380"},"modified":"2016-05-07T17:19:56","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T23:19:56","slug":"a-sweetness-in-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=24380","title":{"rendered":"A Sweetness in Aging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Winter \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Seed Catalog Moon<\/p>\n<p>There is a sweetness in aging that comes unanticipated and for that reason even more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ed2011-01-09_1223.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-24385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ed2011-01-09_1223-300x269.jpg\" alt=\"ed2011 01 09_1223\" width=\"300\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ed2011-01-09_1223-300x269.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ed2011-01-09_1223.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>welcome and surprising. \u00a0The races have been run. \u00a0The stakes won or lost. \u00a0Now there is \u00a0a peace, Kate and I growing old together. \u00a0Of course we still have dreams and goals, but they have taken their proper place, the place they could have taken all along had we been awake.<\/p>\n<p>Life never has a ribbon for your worth; we only worry that it does. \u00a0And that instead of of a blue ribbon we&#8217;ll get the honorable mention, or good sport award, or the congeniality award. \u00a0The truth is he who dies with the most toys still dies, no matter what the brave bumper sticker on your BMW might say.<\/p>\n<p>Life values life, values living toward enrichment for yourself and others. \u00a0No, not that kind of enrichment. \u00a0The other kind. \u00a0Where your work engages all of you, stretches you, challenges your talents, takes you into new territory. \u00a0Where love lays your life down alongside others, so that, as Camus has said, this trip to death might be just a little more comfortable. \u00a0Or, as the millenials have it, so that life will suck less.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out age can strip away the detritus from those insecure parents, those overly ambitious teachers and mentors, that eager super ego and set you free. \u00a0Of course, yes, you can always have this. \u00a0At any age. \u00a0Yes. \u00a0But age can slide it onto your table unannounced, no fanfare, just a quiet, hey, you&#8217;re fine just the way you are.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about a couple of things in this regard. \u00a0The golden years is one. \u00a0It&#8217;s true, these are the golden years. Never thought it was true. \u00a0Now I know.<\/p>\n<p>The second thing is heart. \u00a0As in, at heart I&#8217;m a&#8230; Or, I know this by heart. \u00a0I&#8217;m putting it in my thinking box alongside home. \u00a0Something to bring out now and then and ponder. When you say casually, at heart I&#8217;m a&#8230;, pay attention. \u00a0You have just offered yourself self-knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>In these golden years we become what we are at heart. \u00a0Or at least we can. \u00a0Let it be so for you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winter \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Seed Catalog Moon There is a sweetness in aging that comes unanticipated and for that reason even more welcome and surprising. \u00a0The races have been &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=24380\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A Sweetness in Aging<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38698,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24380\/revisions\/38698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}