Growing Old

Sometimes I think the hardest thing about a caretaker role is listening to someone say "I can't" to something they are capable of doing "because". Respect dictates allowing them to decline opportunities, but it is sad, none the less, to see these chances pass by.

I found the following quote the other day that I am planning to put on a plaque -- to remind me as I age, about "growing old".

People grow old only by deserting their ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin,
but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.

You are as young as your faith,
as old as your doubt;
as young as your self-confidence,
as old as your fear;
as young as your hope as,
old as your despair.

In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber.
So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage,
so long are you young.

When your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism,
then, and then only, are you grown old.
And then, indeed as the ballad says, you just fade away."

-- General Douglas Macarthur