What's the commonly held thought about aging? Isn't it often a fear of having to slow down, retrench, and look backward? Isn't it often a fear of becoming inflexible and rigid both mentally and physically, of becoming a burden to ourselves and loved ones? But those fears really should have nothing to do with our advancing experience. Passage of time and limitation shouldn't be equated. Unfoldment, experience, advancement, progress, growth, are not to be equated with the troubles often associated with aging. Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross in America, said: "Let your life be counted by the mile-stones of achievement and not by the timepiece of years." The Christian Science Journal, Vol. 25 (1908), pp. 696-698.
Is it natural to lose hold of God, of divine Life? No! It's natural to expect to know and express more of God, divine Life. Everyone seems to have to come to grips with the concept of age in one way or another in his or her own experience or in the experience of loved ones. And there needs to be increased compassion, patience, and sensitivity to deal with it properly.
Time would surely be an enemy if we were to let it rule our lives and if we viewed it as a stopwatch ending in death. But we can defeat this enemy by viewing the time that is at our disposal each day as a moment of opportunity for daily spiritual progress. Mary Baker Eddy expands on Paul's words when she writes, "'Now, ' cried the apostle, 'is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,'—meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life." Science and Health, p. 39. Every moment taken to improve thought and to gain clearer views of God lifts the weight of mortal measurements called time from our backs and lightens our steps. The concept of time as measuring a youthful burst of energy that eventually fades into a slippery slide toward despair and death, should yield more and more to the recognition of each moment as an opportunity for improvement and progress until time finally yields entirely to eternity.
