Suddenly We’re Older
Nothing in life is quite so fleeting as the present moment. It quicky passes to become forever a memory. Thomas Aldrich wrote: “All the best sands of my life are somehow getting into the wrong end of the hourglass.”1 Indeed life does pass more quickly than we think, and suddenly we’re older.
Cicero put the passing of time into better perspective when he likened the aging process to the passing of the seasons. And a wise man, he said, will no more lament his entrance into old age than a gardener will lament the arrival of the blooms and the fruit he has nurtured during spring and summer. The proper fruit to be gathered in the winter of our days, according to Cicero, is “to be able to look back with self-approving satisfaction on the happy and abundant produce of more active years.”2
As we move toward the winter of our lives we must remember as Paul said, that “…whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”3 With the passing of each fleeting moment we build what has been called a “storehouse of memories.” Each moment has the potential to become a treasured memory or an unwanted recollection. Both are indelibly etched in our memory banks.
As we grow older we make use of our memories to give us courage, to give us knowledge, to call to remembrance what has been learned or experienced, to renew our faith in the good things of life. How important it then is to fill our storehouse with the kind of memories we can benefit from, over and over again, through the ears. And how important it is that we use each moment in a positive way, with as much concern for future memories as for the momentary pleasures of the present.
We have forgotten more than we will ever remember. Though the years may take their toll on the physical body, the home, the excitement, the exuberance of younger years can retain much of their vitality through warm, wonderful memories. Such is the message expressed in these lyrics:
Though Springs warm rain has turned to sleet
It still is Spring in memory –
And though the years have slowed these feet,
A youthful heart still runs to thee,
Though suddenly we’re older.4
1Thomas Bailey Aldrich, “Leaves rom a Notebook,” Ponkapog Papers
2Cicero, Old Age
3New Testament, Galatians 6:7
4L. Clair Likes (from the chorus: “Suddenly You’re Older”)
November 26, 1972
Broadcast Number 2,254