Are You Ever Too Old?

That's kind of an open ended question.  Of course there are things in life that you can definitely get too old for.  Breastfeeding, maybe?  Birthing children, of course.  Gosh, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head right now though.  Weird.

So that brings me to the title of this post.  Are you ever actually too old for anything?  A friend once told me that he was too old and set in his ways to ever start over again.  And he spoke these words like the idea was something he wasn't exactly happy about but rather something he had resigned himself into believing.  I think I might have stared incredulously in response to this statement because here I was, in the middle of the process of "starting over again."  Now, I did not purposefully make the decision to change but instead had it thrown at me.  Mine was a response rather than a choice.  

But still.....

I was doing it and trying to make the best of it.

So what is it that makes us cringe when change presents itself in our lives?  I'm pretty sure the answer is simple:  F.  E.  A.  R.  Yep, it's nothing more than fear.  Fear of failure, fear of giving up control, fear of ridicule, fear of feeling uncomfortable.  Fear of the unknown.  I think that's the answer.  We are afraid.  Afraid of the change.  It's not that we are controlled by our age it's that we are controlled by our fears.

Think on that for a moment.

I've been pondering this truth for a while now and trying to be mindful of it while making decisions about my own life.  Change can be good for us.  Even when we aren't looking for it or prepared for it.
Trust the process.  That's my mantra.

I hope that I continue to learn new things for the rest of my life.  Even hard things.  I hope I can embrace my fears (notice I did not say conquer them--that's a whole other story) and still allow myself to be open to the new.  New ideas, new people, new activities, new places.

The older I get the more I firmly believe that happiness and contentment come with letting go and allowing the process(es) of life to usher us to where we need to be.  Uncomfortable?  Yes, sometimes.  Scary?  Heck yeah.  Confusing?  Probably.  But we must quit fighting against it and allow the process to unfold and present the next beautiful opportunity for us to embrace.