The Gift of Aging

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be writing about aging. That was something my parents and elders talked about when they would "talk about the good old days". Well here I am..... 60 years old and a grandfather. Holy Sh#%t.....

I have spent the last few months discussing this topic with a few older friends. We decided that we ought to write one of our 432 Peace Project songs about death.

One of the men didn't want to talk about death and wanted to know why we would spend our time on this subject....... and with my reaction of dismissal.... I had a feeling we were on the right track and the right subject for us. I know when I get a reaction like that.... I am when I need to be.

Through a series of tape recorded conversations, discussions, questions and writing lyrics , we realized we wanted to write about .... not death..... we wanted to write about life. Our challenge was to honor death and live to live.... not...live to die......how do we express that? how do we hold space for both life and death?

This is where we started to have some fun and realize the gift of aging. We started to allow ourselves to recognize the parts of us that we DID NOT have when we were younger....the real gifts of aging. Well, I posted one of mine in the picture above, Stella Hope Nguyen...my granddaughter. I got to baby sit her a whole day last week by myself and I saw it so plainly..... she needs me.... and I need her. She is one of my gifts of aging.

Aging provides me the time in life to give back, to love, to hold space and not judge like I used to. It gives me the gift of wisdom and humility.... to gain my voice and remain the student. I don't have as much to prove. I didn't have grandfathers alive in my life so I missed that boat and I have imagined over the years what they might have taught me......and now I have that gift to give....the gifts of aging.