Serenity Comes With Age, Don’t Turn Away from It

“Youth is wasted on the young.”

“Life is stranger than fiction.”

“Be careful, or you will turn into your mother (father).”

These statements mean nothing to the young, but every one of them comes true as you age.

After turning 50 (I soon will be 53), I looked at the young and marveled at what they could do.

No more.

Yes, it is wonderful what the young can do, but I no longer wish to go back there.

I was nice on the outside and sometimes not a nice person inside.

Find your peace.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding,” it is stated in the NIV version of the Bible in Proverbs 3:5.

I mean not to be sanctimonious in this statement and if you don’t believe or go to church sometimes, find your peace in serving others.

It could be your wife, your children, an elder couple or someone in need.

For example, my wife and I live near her parents, who are 82 and 83, and walk their dog twice a day.

It is part of our routine.

Live your life for others.

It is not to give up yourself, but serve others as part of your day.

When your fall, forgive yourself, learn from it and move on.

I have been fired at least four times in my life.

Each time I went in a different career path and made it work.

I most recently (2008) got fired after a 25-year career in the media, in this case, newspapers.

Newspapers are losing money and much finer writers and editors have been fired or laid off after I was let go.

Me? I love sports and was a part time sports writer for the daily newspaper. I left sports to go into news.

I was a reporter for three years, then had a successful 10-year career reporting and editing community news, good deeds types of reporting.

My job was dissolved and I got put on the copy desk, editing reporter’s copy.

I went into the job with confidence, but in retrospect, I was not suited for the job.

There are probably those who thought I was not a good writer, but I don’t worry about that anymore.

I had cooked in high school and at the age of 50 went to culinary school on a state unemployment opportunity.

I landed a summer job at one of the Atlantic City casinos in the kitchen, but at the end of the summer, the job was over.

I bounced around in a couple of cooking jobs, until I found the job I am at now: as a cook at an airport. I have been moved around in shifts and positions, but have had the job for about 10 months now.

Baby steps.

I still have a ways to go.

But in that time, I have found peace.

I no longer drink alcohol, at all, or maybe once every two months.

Try it. It is freeing.

Coffee is my new drug.

I don’t smoke, only a short time in high school.

I have a wife, a teenage daughter and a cat. We life in a modest home, but it is ours.

When the wind and the rain come, we have a roof over our heads.

I have lost both my parents, but through faith, I know I will see them again.

Peace, tranquilty.

Thank you, God.

That is wisdom with age I have been talking about.

Life is stranger than fiction?

Let me tell you a few stories that came down the pike when I worked for the newspaper.

A few summers ago, a youth died after falling off a third-floor apartment balcony.

The reporter told me, which wasn’t in the story, that the youth and some of his buddies were trying to see how far they could spit.

The youth who died, must have took a running start, ran into the railing and lost his balance.

We men have all done it.

Then there was the man who was drunk, of course, and killed his buddy pointing a shotgun.

His ammunition?

A cigarette.

Then there was the man who got married on his mother’s grave.

You know what happened the next day?

The married man died.

For NASCAR fans there was the case of Dale Earnheart, Sr.

 

His crash looked minor, yet Earnheart Sr. died.

Cars that hit a wall, flip and catch on fire, at times, the driver walks out without a stratch.

Find your peace.

Don’t worry about dieing.

You know not when you are going to die.

You could live to be 100 or die at 10, 17, or 45.

You just don’t know.

Watch your health, take everything in moderation, and do something nice for someone else without expecting something in return.

 

You’ll feel a whole lot better.