The Art of Staying Young – Sunday, November 06, 1983
The unforgiving ticking of the clock moves us on—dispassionately, uncontrollably carrying us towards maturity and old age. There is nothing we can do to alter time or impede its progress. We will never be as young again as we are this moment.
Despite our best efforts, time soon has its way, revealing the years which measure our lives.
But there are parts of us which age can never mar—indeed, parts of us which grow young with time, become more graceful, less feeble; more perfect, less infirm.
For while the body slowly withers and atrophies, the soul rejuvenates with time.
This, then, is the art of staying young: to cherish and maintain enthusiasm of the spirit with charity and tenderness of heart, through constant searching and inquiry, by contemplation and appreciation.
To be young at any age is to be young at heart; it is to be reborn every morning in gratitude for our own existence and baptized each day in the waters of experience and increased knowledge.
To be young is to understand the enduring value of friends and quiet discussions and the fleeting nature of material possessions; it is to trade fashion for grace, inexperience for wisdom, vanity for self-confidence; it is to see ourselves, finally, as we are seen and to understand at last that character and charity are the only investments which pay true dividends.
To have a youthful soul is to find our own lost youth in the eyes of children and grandchildren or to experience true love in the sacred clasp of time-worn hands between lifelong companions. The young refresh themselves in memories of home and past friends and find eternal life in their own resurrection in the fragrant blossom of a lilac bush.
Old age follows youth as night the day, but accompanied by its own youthful grace and fascination, still wanting to know, less likely to doubt, more willing to love.
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November 06, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,829