I’m getting old!
No surprise, I
guess. I look in the mirror and wonder, ‘Where did my hair grow?’ My wife
reminds me that it grows everywhere except the top of my head. God’s irony, His
little joke, I suppose. His, and my wife’s, sense of humor.
One of the
Sackett movies, maybe The Quick And The Dead, but I can’t remember which
one, had a scene where a young buck tried to pick a fight with an older
grisly-looking cowboy while the old guy tried to eat his dinner. The old guy
didn’t say anything. Didn’t even look at the young buck. He kept eating his
steak and drinking his beer. The old guy’s younger buddy who sat at the same
table looked up at the young guy and said something like, “See the lines on his
face? That’s experience! That’s his years of putting up with young peacocks
like you! They represent miles traveled and mountains climbed and rivers
crossed, and he’s still standing. Now leave him be and go away!” When the young
buck hesitated, the younger friend repeated, “I said, ‘Leave him be!’” And
eventually, the young buck went back to the bar and turned his back on the old
guy.
I know I didn’t
capture that scene as well as it was written in Louis L’Amour’s book or in the
movie, but I remember the scene well.
Yes, I’m old and
getting older. My kids are getting older. Hannah graduates from college in
December. Emily’s a senior and graduates in about three weeks. Kim and I
celebrate twenty-four years together this coming July.
I have my
wrinkles and what hair I do have is gray. I move a bit slower, not that I ever
moved particularly fast.
Where did the
time go?
Funny thing
about age. One might look older, but one might feel not so much older. Not so
much!
My older
brother, Jack, has always said that age is a state of mind. One’s body might
fail, but one’s mind and heart and soul doesn’t – unless you allow it to do so.
We can’t
necessarily control how our bodies change. We can exercise and diet, but the
body will do what it’s going to do. Period.
However, I think
we can control our heart and our soul. We don’t have to give into the idea that
we’re old. We don’t have to necessarily “act our age!” We can still laugh and
act silly and sing off-key. We can still attack life and all that it offers. Perhaps
not necessarily attack life, but we certainly can embrace it. All of it.
We can choose to
seek new adventures as well as revisit older ones. We can take care of what we
do have, and give back to those around us. We can face change . . . and age . .
. bravely, fiercely. And when we look in the mirror and see that our hair,
those of us who have some, has turned gray. We will see that there might be a
few more lines on our face. But we can choose to face that reflection and
smile, knowing that each of us, you and I, rode miles, and climbed mountains,
and crossed rivers, and know deep within that there are still many more miles
and mountains and rivers to come our way. Something to think about . . .
Live Your Life,
and Make A Difference!
To My Readers:
Book One, Stolen Lives:
Two thirteen
year old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of
FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they’ll end up like all the others-
dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. And the possibility
exists that one of his team members might be involved.
Book Two, Shattered Lives:
Arrest warrants
were issued, but six dangerous men escaped and are out for revenge. The boys,
recently freed from captivity, are in danger and so are their families, but
they don’t know it. The FBI has no clues, no leads, and nothing to go on and
because of that, cannot protect them.
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:
It began in
Arizona and it ends in Arizona- in death. A 14 year old boy has a price on his
head, but he and his family don’t know it. Their vacation turns into a trip to
hell. Out gunned and outnumbered, can this boy protect his father and brothers?
Without knowing who these men are? Or how many there are? Or when they might
come for him, for them?
The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:
FBI Agent Pete
Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys
left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they live hundreds
of miles apart, the lives of Kelliher, 11 year old Brett McGovern, and 11 year
old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two boys become
interwoven with the same thread that Pete Kelliher holds in his hand and are on
a collision course with death.
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Thank you for your comment. I welcome your thought. Joe