As each of us grows older, we are able to experience situations and changes that were not possible during our younger years. Even though the pattern is similar, going through the experiences of any particular year is unique for each of us.
For example, when we become ‘sweet 16’ there are plenty of role models and expectations from our family and friends on what types of behaviors and attitudes we can choose to exhibit. Another plus is that most people live through their 16th year of life so there are many models on how to manage the thoughts and feelings of that age.
This pattern can be repeated for many years and many special birthdays during the early years of our lives: becoming 18, turning into an adult at 21, changing with the 30s, seeing middle age as we enter the 40s, getting the first AARP mailing and its implication of getting old at 50, realizing that retirement is getting closer to reality with the arrival of the 60s, health becomes a major issue and important people are dieing as we enter the 70s, etc.
Suddenly many people realize that they have had unique life journeys that have turned them into the individuals that they are today. One may notice that there are fewer people in their age group to be role models or pass along society’s expectations as the years pass into our senior years.
With this awareness we usually know that our lives will continue to change for whatever time we have left on this earth and in reality it is up to each of us to select any feelings, thoughts and behaviors to guide this time.
By the time we have reached the senior years, we are basically who we are and seldom is there much motivation to alter the ways we choose to manage the changes still taking place in our lives. What we have learned to this point in life is usually the way many people will choose to live their final days.
An important question for many seniors is whether we have chosen a path of living our lives that becomes a habit. Somewhere on our journey we may have found a way of living that seemed to fit our needs and seemed to work on handling the challenges of our lives. It may or may not work as well in our senior years as it did when we were younger with the intensity of passion for the future.
Most of the people around us in their senior years frequently choose the habit style of living. It is known, it is safe, it is comfortable, etc. If this pattern is so frequently chosen, then what is the price that we pay for managing life in this manner? By the senior years, we all know that any choice we make has a price of some type.
So, what price is often paid for the pattern of not changing our life significantly during our senior years? For many, the price that frequently seems to have been paid is the absence of or lessening of passion as an active part of our daily life.
Passions from our younger years can be those areas of life which energized us, challenged us, created adventures, encouraged us to love and be loved, learn about new subjects and people, create new hobbies or interests, invite intensity to remain in our daily feelings, take risks, etc.
Of course, passion can be tempered and lessened at any time during our life journey. Some lose it early and most of their lives may be lived in a habitual format. The intense passionate part of our personalities can be lost slowly over the years or more quickly when one decides that they are ‘old’ and it is time to ‘act their age’. Retaining passion in our lives can take lots of work and extract high and various types of prices to be paid.
So, as we watch the birthdays roll onward, which choices are we going to make on this particular continuum of actively retaining the values of passion in our lives or let them go for the easier path of having a pattern of habits guide us in life? Our opportunity to choose never ends.
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