As I peruse the myriad posts on my Facebook feed each day, I’m constantly amazed by the plethora of pure garbage I find there. I guess that’s to be expected from social media today. Fortunately, however, when I’m patient and persistent enough, I eventually come across valuable gems worthy of serious consideration — things I wish I’d written, or ideas which hit home with me. These pearls of wisdom often inspire me to write articles which illustrate a connection between those words and my life.

The quote above, which seems to be attributed to no one in particular, consists of three brief sentences, all of which ring true in my life.

“The older you get, the more quiet you become.” — I don’t dwell on this much, but it’s true. My need, and even my desire, to interact with others is significantly less today than it was in my younger years. I enjoy being alone now. I appreciate and savor times of solitude. I still enjoy having others nearby, whether I’m at home, at a local coffee shop, or walking through my neighborhood, but other than a quick acknowledgement of their presence, I don’t feel the need to engage them in lengthy conversation.

“Life humbles you so deeply as you age.” — Oh, yes,… it most certainly does. As I recently posted on my own Facebook page, I’ve come to the realization that “God did not put us on this earth for us to see how important we could become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others.” In other words, it’s not about me,… and it never was. As I look back on my life, I realize that there were many times when I thought I was important — times when I considered myself irreplaceable. Fortunately, I’m over it. I now see that despite all the effort I devoted to accomplishing things of value in my lifetime, I’m really just a pawn in the chess game of life.

“You realize how much nonsense you’ve wasted time on.” — This truly saddens me, because it is so true. On the chance that I could live to the ripe old age of 90, which is highly unlikely, I could divide my life into three equal parts. In the first thirty years, I prepared myself for adulthood. I went to school, worked a variety of part-time jobs, dated a number of women, and developed a sense of what I was being called to do in my life. The second thirty years was devoted to living out my adult life — starting a post-collegiate career, getting married, having a family, and doing my best to balance the challenges of all these responsibilities. For the most part, it was a wonderful time of my life. Like most experiences, however, it wasn’t all peaches and cream.

Only now, as I enjoy the early stage of the third period of my life, am I able to clearly recognize how much nonsense (my Thesaurus tells me that a synonym that could replace this word is bullshit!) I wasted my time on through the second thirty years of my life. There were situations I could have and should have just avoided. There were people I could have and should have simply ignored. There were conflicts into which I should never have allowed myself to be drawn. Yes, the older I get, the more I realize that there were other choices I could have and should have made.

I’m 68. I’ll be 69 in June. I’m not old, but I am most certainly older, a stage of life I am enjoying immensely and appreciating increasingly day by day.