Act your age?

"Live your life and forget your age." -Positive thinking every day by Norman Vincent Peale

How old am I again?

Sometimes I feel ancient. Older, somehow than the dirt under my feet or the breezes around my body. Older than the rain or the streams that flow. Fire seems to be my only compatriot, though sometimes I feel that I'm older than that as well.

But sometimes I feel so young and fresh and naive that nothing seems to make sense.

I know that there is a season to every life and to every incarnation of life. Kermit the frog actually put it very well when he said that "life is full of meetings and partings... that is the way of it."

But to say that one should forget the years in favor of living to the fullest is a grand idea. Its a truly ancient concept with parallels in every major religion. Its the idea of putting aside distractions to live and love and go on.

This, I believe is why the Muslims do not have pictures depicting their religious icons and beliefs. Its also found in Christianity with Jesus encouraging his followers to give away all of their possessions and to follow him. Its in the Zen Buddhist path to enlightenment in the form of bringing forth all the discomforts and hells that we've created for ourselves, acknowledging them and then letting them go.

Get out of your own way, and there is happiness around the corner.

Life is full of trials and tribulations that can make us feel like fumbling newborns in a world wrought with pointed edges. It can weigh on us until we feel like our hearts will implode from loss.

But it is also brimming with simple joys. The beauty of new fallen snow, the laughter of children, the babbling brook, a warm fire, a soft breeze... and the comfort of loved ones. It doesn't matter how old we are, we are still here; and we're here for each other.