There's an old adage that says it's never too late, and I've always taken that to mean we are never too old to truly live. Once we decide that our lives are over (for whatever reasons, be it sickness or grief or trauma), we become a shell waiting to die, trapped in a unnatural stasis that's a purgatory of our own making; taking up space, maybe feeling worthless or hopeless, slowly leading up to the final ending in death.
To falsely entomb ourselves in an amber where nothing ever changes is to deny the essence of life itself: we change, we breathe, we move, we adapt. It is constant, and that can be quite comforting. The world keeps on spinning, despite the trivial happenings here on earth, because the universe endures forever, or so it seems to one small human on one small planet moving through a seemingly infinite (to us) vastness of time and space.
We are actually part of a much bigger miracle, so when I saw this lovely piece about empty nesters who are giving new life, and getting a new life, by raising another person's child (now their child) with their resources, I know they're the type of people who get the message. Despite the touchy-feely, nonjudgmental credos that exist in pop culture, there are basic concepts like right and wrong, and good vs. evil. I believe at the end of the day, no matter how much mud I walk through, it's the goodness in people that ultimately triumphs, because it's who we are as part of a greater divinity that sings and dances to the eternal music of the heavens.
How do you know it when you see it? Because it feels really good, and it is beautiful. What can you do today that adds to the greater good? Go out there and do it! Get in the game before it really is too late, because every day that you're alive, it's not the end.
