Growing old and changing is natural and normal to everything

Caroline, you wrote about your very pessimistic friend who seemed to be able to

see darkness everywhere. Your post brought these thoughts to my mind.

As we grow old, with wrinkles on our faces and slower steps, we own what we havegrown. If we've frowned a lot and felt greed and hard-heartedness our faces will show those kinds of lines, and the gaze in the eyes will also show the same about the inner life. It has been said that by the time she is forty a woman will

have the face she has earned. Smoking and a lot of exposure to the sun and poor

nutrition also take a heavy toll. But the placement of the lines tells a lot.

Of course today, some people try to get rid of their lines by having botox injections, or plastic surgery. The inner self and the kind of life lived shows more

quickly on women's faces because their skin is softer and thinner and more easily marked, but the same is true for men. Look at the faces around you and you'll

see it, too.

The older people become the more clearly you can see who they really are inside.

The older people become the more clearly they see the fruits of their life's labours.

The true life is the inner life. It is possible to be old, weak and ill, and still be healthy and happy inside of yourself. It is possible to be young, strong

and healthy, and to be greedy, conniving self-centred, and inwardly sick.

The quality level we are able to reach here in this life through our own actions

is what we own, and take along with us to the next level of existence. There we can't make progress through our own efforts as we can here. Progress comes through the mercy of God.

When it comes to rocks breaking down into sand it seems that is progress for a rock. Little particles of rock break down into soil to nourish plants, animals,

and humans so the mineral has advanced to a higher level. Little particles of rock are most important. What grows from them breaks down too, and the whole makes

richer and richer soil. Without rocks, and broken down rocks we wouldn't have

this beautiful planet itself, and its myriads of awsomely beautiful beings.

I'm sure you can see the relationship here to people growing old. :-) We live

our lives and do our part for our world and our civilization and the young ones

coming along behind us. Then we step out of this life leaving our bodies here to continue the cycle as we go on to another stage of life.

Your friend is a pessimist right now, and hopefully this will change. What a perspective -- deadening to joy and progress. Leading to hopelessness. It's better to focus on the positive things of life and the positive things in people. Both life and people respond to you much better if you do. :-)) I think you know

that, and hope that your friend will learn it.

Warmly, Mary