Growing older is a fact we all must face.

But … don’t ask me to tell you when growing up stops and growing old starts. I’m still trying to figure that out myself.

Although one possible indication that we’re growing older is when our friends start telling us how young we look. (Seems to be happening more often lately.)

However, there are some “signs” we can read along the way that suggests we are entering the transition. And what are some of those signs? Physically, our aging body puts on the brakes. You begin to huff and puff when you used to sprint with endurance. You prefer to sit more than stand … to watch more than do … to forget your birthday rather than remember it.

Mentally, the aging brain longs for relief. You can’t remember like you used to, and you don’t respond like you ought to. You start thinking more about yesterday and tomorrow and less about today.

And as Charles Swindoll points out … “Emotionally, you undergo strange fears and feelings you once swore would ‘never occur in me’, such as: being negative, critical, and downright ornery at times; being reluctant to let those who are younger carry more responsibility; feeling unwanted and ‘in the way’; being preoccupied with ‘what if’ rather frequently; feeling guilty over previous mistakes and wrong decisions; feeling forgotten, unloved, lonely, and passed by; feeling threatened by sounds, speed, financial uncertainty, and disease; and being resistant to the need to adjust and adapt.

All this … and there is much more … is worsened by the memory of those days when you once were so very efficient, capable, needed, and fulfilled. As you look into the mirror, you’re forced to admit that the fingers of age have begun to scratch their marks upon your house of clay … and it’s hard to believe your twilight years could be of much worth.”

How wrong! How destructive such thoughts can be!  How quickly such thinking can imprison you to self-pity, surrounded by the walls of doubt, depression, uselessness, and regret.  So … stop it.

No one fails to see that growing old has its difficulties and heartaches. It does. But to see only the dry and dusty path of your desert experience and miss the refreshing oasis of sharing your life with others is to turn the latter part of your life journey through life into nothing more than an empty and unfruitful endurance test that makes everyone around you miserable.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We have a choice. So let’s make a difference in our growing older, and allow these years of experience to inform our attitude and equip us for service. We have a lot to offer our community, and we’re never too old to make a difference.

Carl R. Johnson is the Community Relations Directorfor the Kitsap Alliance of Resources for Elders (KARE)