Aging: The Master Teacher

From the Disease of Ageism to the Delight of Agelessness Part 2

Jul 14 2017

So, if ageism is a disease, a social contagion of our mind that damages us both individually and collectively, what is its cure?Like any malady, we first need a diagnosis, an awareness that we indeed suffer from it... we need to own that we indeed have it. Next we need to understand how it infects us.Ageism is a particular cancer of the mind that invades our personality by: 1) distorting our beliefs about aging, 2) blurring our perceptions of aging, 3) twisting our thoughts about old people, and 4) irritating our feelings about old people. Beyond this we need some...

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From the Disease of Ageism to the Delight of Agelessness- Part 1

Jul 07 2017

Ageism, the cultural diminishment of aging and elderhood, is a disease just as real as pneumonia or cancer.  Instead of attacking our bodies, ageism infects our minds, hearts, and souls.  Ageism renders us ill in spirit.  Here is where ageism damages us most- in the ways we see, think, and feel about ourselves as we become more chronologically endowed.  Ageism is a virulent social contagion that is carried unconsciously by us all, varying only by the degree of infection we carry.  We catch the disease of ageism from each other, from the media, and seemingly from the air we breathe…...

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How to Flunk Your Retirement – Part 2

Jun 23 2017

Retirement offers the prospect of a new beginning.  Retirement is a commencement more than an ending.  Retirement gives us hope as we start a new life journey.  Retirement holds up a new light as we see a new path. The new journey brings us gifts: we become more interesting and lead a more meaningful life. This light is the same light that has steadied us all along….it is the light of Christ.  So what do we need to do to fully capture this light of retirement and embark on this new journey?  The answer is in the way we use...

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Don’t Flunk your Retirement!

Jun 15 2017

Too many people, and more guys than gals, flunk their retirement.  OK, many if not most, are financially prepared, and they appear to be recreationally involved in some leisure activities.  All to the good!  But how prepared are they as professed Christians in the most important life arena… their spiritual life?  It’s here where we can flunk retirement; we simply do not see retirement for what it fundamentally is... a new calling to new life. So what is new life exactly?  Well, it doesn’t mean you need to necessarily move your residence or find a new life partner, or change...

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Seven Lifespan Vitality Blockers

Jun 06 2017

Vitality emerges naturally in a person as a mindset of living fully is progressively developed, and when potential wellness obstacles (or blockers) are removed.  The following seven vitality blockers can prevent you from experiencing genuine vitality and from living fully.  Dr. Norman Shealy, M.D. and Caroline Myss say in their book The Creation of Health that people can accelerate illness when one or more of the following seven dysfunctional patterns is present: 1.  The presence of unresolved or deeply consuming emotional, psychological or spiritual stress in our life.  Holding a grudge, unresolved grief, or anger, unexpressed feelings, resentments, injustices, abuse...

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Ten Characteristics That Predict Unsuccessful Aging: Part 2 of 2

May 31 2017

Dr. George Valliant devoted his entire professional life to studying the developmental progression of Harvard graduates.  This study, known as the Grant Study, is perhaps one of the most comprehensive, longitudinal overviews of human development.  Valliant’s findings of how these graduates aged offer us deeper understanding of what it means to be ageless.  Valliant identified ten factors of unsuccessful aging which can paradoxically give us a keener insight into Living Ageless in the Lord.  In this writing I’ll discuss the second five; factors six through ten.  6.  Tendency to create Guilty Feelings Such persons see themselves as the epicenter of...

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