The Never-ending 30 Day Challenge: "A Picture of Something You Want to do Before you Die"

Salvador Dali - Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The Three Ages)

 

Day 15 - A Picture of Something You Want to do Before you Die

Live.  Simple enough, right?  I know that I could go with a hundred different thrill-seeking things here, i.e. sky-diving, para-sailing, bungee jumping, travel to hear or there, see a baby born, ride a dolphin, solve the energy crisis, bring about world peace, and tame a wild stallion--- all that crazy stuff.  But what do I really want in life?  I suppose I have always wanted what there is no promise of in life---a long life.  I want it all.  Youth…middle age…old age.  ALL of the stages we are intended to have. 

In life there are no promises.  You don’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow let alone 10, 20, 30, or 40 years from now.  Something I want to do before I die---GROW OLD.  I want to watch my children grow up.  I want the chance to have a wrinkly face.  I want to have a thin and wispy mane of gray.  I want to be a grandmother.  I want to be wise.  I want to do my best to pass on what knowledge and experience I have acquired over the years.  I want to age like a fine wine or a good cheese.  I know that getting old will have its share of difficulties, but isn’t that really the point of life no matter what stage you are in?  With so many tragedies in the world, we should all feel blessed to make it long enough to gray, or wrinkle, or sag, or forget a few things or names or where we left this or that.  I know that it’s going to be bittersweet, but what is life but a bittersweet symphony, seriously?  (I told you day 1---I’m obsessively nostalgic!)

Reaching old age is a gift from the Universe.  I will hopefully be softened by time and not embittered by it.  Youth and today will be so far behind me then.  I’m sure there will be many times I will gaze off into a sunset, musing about all of the days of yore and the people that have come and gone before me in my life.  When my life flashes before my eyes, I hope it is a happy and satisfying movie.  And when I feel Death coming for me, I want to give him a nod and grab my coat.  

["A Picture of Something You Want to do Before You Die" originally posted to Facebook Mar. 03, 2011]