The years we have lived

Wisdom from Howard Thurman:

“All of us must accommodate ourselves to the simple fact that we are not so young as we once were, and thus take life in the stride belonging to the years we have lived.”

I love that.  So much subtlety to explore there.  We must “accommodate ourselves” to aging.  Not fight it, not resist it, not ignore it, but “accommodate ourselves” to it.  It is, after all, part of us, and we part of it.  And it is accommodation, not giving in, not resigning ourselves to it, but accommodate ourselves” to the years we have lived, and how they have been lived.  But it gets better.  We are, of course, as old as we numerically are.  We have been around that many years, but Thurman is not telling us to “act our age.”  No.  Age aside, we each have a “stride belonging to the years we have lived,” and that defines how we are to live, to age.

Of course, those may just be the wistful ramblings of an old fart.