For the young once

I love going to Papemelroti Gift Shop along Roces Avenue. I always find interesting and helpful things I can share with you.

Recently, I bought a book The Best is yet to be, Words of Wisdom for the Young Once. Funny, straight from the heart and wise insights about getting old, about being at that age where you are called "young once," about the wisdom one has when they reach that age.

Here are some of them:

• It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. —Abraham Lincoln

• Those who love deeply never grow old. —Sir Arthur Pinero

• We are not limited by our old age. We are liberated by it. —Stu Mittleman

• Live your life and forget your age. —Norman Vincent Peale

• What a gift a grandparent can be to a young person unsteady on the path of life. —Irene M. Endicott

• We are always the same age inside. —Gertrude Stein

• Let us respect gray hairs, especially our own. —J.P. Sears

• How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young or slender. —William Games

• Forty is the old age of youth. Fifty is the youth of old age. —French Proverb

• Do not regret growing old. It is a privilege denied to many. You’re never too old to become younger. —Mae West

• As a white candle in a holy place, so is the beauty of an aged face. —Joseph Campbell

• Everyone is the age of their heart. —Guatemalan Proverb

• I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations and suddenly find that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study or read about. It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you. —Agatha Christie

• You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. —Michael Pritchard

• Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. —Franz Kafka

• Beautiful young people are accidents of nature but beautiful old people are works of art. —Eleonore Roosevelt

• No wise man even wished to be younger.

—Jonathan Swift

• In case you’re worried about what’s going to become of the younger generation, it’s going to grow up and start worrying about the younger generation. —Roger Allen

• Age is an opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress. And as the evening twilight fades away, the sky filled with stars, invisible by day. —Longfellow

• The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been. —Madeline L’ Engle

• Birthdays will be good for you. The more you have, the longer you live. —T. Kinnes

• You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. —Les Brown

• The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. —Muhammad Ali

• The Lord gives power to the faith, and strengthens the powerless. Even youth will faith and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. —Isaiah 40:29-31

• Grey hair is a crown of glory. It is gained in a righteous life. —Proverb 16:31

The book is filled with funny, straight-from-the-heart and wise insights about getting old, about being at that "young once" age.

After reading the quotations, I feel a sense of pride one should have as one grows old. Respect the pride of the gray hairs. This, I dedicate to my parents and grandparents and to all those who have come before me.

I offer them a heart of praise and thanks.

I will look forward to growing old, be thankful to God my Father for my added years and make the best of them.

As I have a few strands of white hair, I will look forward to my grandchildren and by then, they will count my gray strands.

(E-mail me at babyjackster@yahoo.com or visit www.jackielou.com)