I hope this new story of mine leaves you feeling young at heart. God bless you always.

Most people divide life into different stages. There is childhood from 1 to 12 when we are first exploring and learning about life. There are the teenage years from 13 to 19 when we are changing so much and also deciding who we really are. There is young adulthood from 20 to 40 when we are finding our place in this world and having a family. There is middle age from 40 to 60 when we take stock and question how our life has gone. Then there is old age from 60 to death when we finally start to figure things out just as our bodies start to wear out.

Well I am now about to go into the last stage and it isn’t going well. The truth is while I am in my 60th year of life here I surely don’t feel that way on the inside. In truth, all those stages I went through before are still active inside me. I am still a child, a teenager, a young adult, and a middle aged man at times. And in addition to this there is the eternal and forever young soul that lives inside this body and sees that age is really an illusion, that death is merely a doorway.

This can be really confusing at times. Am I young, old, eternal or all three at once? I was thinking about this the other day when I saw some children laughing, running, and playing in their yard while their new puppy happily chased after them. In that moment I smiled with joy as my confusion cleared. I saw once again that life is simple. It is we who make it complicated.

No matter what our age, no matter what stage of life we are in, God put us here to Love. God put us here to learn. God put us here to laugh, have fun, share joy, do good, smile, sing, dance, run, play and enjoy every moment. God put us here to be kind, help others, and make this world a better place. Age doesn’t matter. Time doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we live, truly Live this life. Because when you move through that doorway to the greater life to come, the Love you shared, the joy you spread, and the lessons you learned are all that you take with you.