I am so grateful to know so many older women and men who inspire me. When I say older, I mean anyone over 60 and some as old as 90’s. I am part of community of people who are getting older, but doing it with such grace and fun. They still have an excitement for life and consider themselves opening up to the new all the time.

Do they have their aches and pains? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem to stop them from doing what they do and having new experiences. They travel to foreign countries on very adventurous expeditions. They choose to move to foreign countries. They begin new careers. They haven’t given up on love and fall in love again and again. They even engage in strenuous sports, like rowing and surfing and paddle-boarding and skiing.  They sing. They paint. They dance. In fact, these people do more than some younger ones I know.

I could say it is because they are retired and not stressed by the work world and raising families, but that wouldn’t be true. Some are entrepreneurs. Some are still working jobs. They have all the same reasons to be stressed, but they’ve chosen something different. They’ve chosen to be happy, to continue to be inspired by life, to continue to feel that they have a contribution to give the world.

I’ve written about ageism before and any of us over 65 have felt the pangs of it in the race consciousness. However, what I know is that we are individuals. We are powerful. The Power that dwells within us never ages. It is always in a state of creation. That’s what it does. It doesn’t understand the word “stop.” It always continues to expand.

I believe that as I am getting older, I am not aging as much as I am learning how to take all that I know and add it to what I continue to learn. I am not slowing down, but I am taking more time to be me and enjoy who I have become. I understand that the energy within me, the Intelligence that I am is activated by learning and being engaged in life. It expands in a circle of giving and receiving.

If I am still here, there is a reason that it is so. My journey is to keep that reason changing and expanding. My journey is to always be open to new information, to be open at the top. My journey is to listen to my spirit and allow it to guide and direct my physical body. Good nourishment is not the latest fad. It is individual and can be known by each of us as we tune into and listen to our bodies.

There is much to do and be after 65. I am sure we all have our own journey and way of being, and that we are all finding it. If it is to relax and take it easy that’s great too. My only knowing is that we all realize how important we are to this world at this time, no matter how old we are, what physical condition we are in or how many challenges we have. The world needs all of us. We are all a part of the tapestry exquisitely, uniquely woven into the pattern that is called life.

Love and Aloha,

REv. Rita