There is a universal truth that the older you get in years, the faster those years go by. Every time I see a young parent post a picture of a child with the caption “Where does the time go?” I want to respond this way:
It goes away. The measure of time doesn’t change, but what makes it fly is the amount of things you fill it with that you then try to balance. If you want to slow it down, you take some things off the schedule. You take the phone out of your hand and you talk. You go outside and you play. You go to the beach or the woods or the lake and you sit around and play games and tell stories. When your children are grown, they will remember these times, and they will come home to relive them and bring their wives and their children to experience them. This is the joy of being older, never old.
As I write this, my grown children are home for us to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. I am blessed at age 63 with still-living and fairly healthy parents. I know how unusual that is, so it is that I am STILL in my role as a child to return home to visit my parents. I know what this means to them, and what it means to me. I know that the desire to go home does not happen automatically, but it comes with the investment of time in the life of children when they are young.
My paternal grandfather was old for the entire time I knew him. He sat in a chair, and that’s the only way I remember him. My maternal grandmother would get on a bike and ride with me or put on silly hats and play dolls. She showed me what it means to keep the child alive inside, and it is that child that attracts other children.
So, if you are wondering how to keep the time from flying or your children from getting away from you, I’d say it very simply: nurture the child inside of you now so that the children want to come and play with YOU.
Older Never Old 