How OLD Are You?

I was looking through the Ernest Holmes book, Living the Science of Mind, when I came upon this essay: "How OLD Are You?"

Sometimes I feel pretty old. Tired, sluggish, a bit on the fat side. I look in the mirror and mumble, "What happened?"

Holmes asks: When does a person get too old to enjoy life? Could it be that even age is something that happens to our minds rather than our bodies?  And could a person be as young at eighty as he is eighteen?

I read a story recently about Ernestine Shepherd, an eighty year old body builder. She keeps herself vital, healthy, strong and youthful by being “determined, dedicated and disciplined to stay fit.”

 So her process starts in her mind. She made a decision to be a world class body builder and she follows that up with a disciplined action plan.

As Holmes says, life is always working miracles in our bodies. If injured “there is an Intelligence that immediately puts all parts of the chemistry of our body to work to replace it with a new cell, one that is whole, complete and perfect.” Thus wounds heal. And we definitely can sculpt our bodies, as Shepherd has demonstrated.

Let’s steer our minds toward the possible, the enthusiastic expectation of fresh beginnings with each new day, says Holmes, rather than allow ourselves to be stuck with old stereotypes about aging.

If we divide our lives into thirds, he adds, typically the first third involves growing up and getting ready to live in a larger way, while the second third may involve falling in love, building a family and a career. In both thirds we believe there is more to come.

Sometimes, with the last third, the kick may have gone out of life. Perhaps the element of wonder and surprise in simple everyday things fades. Perhaps, unlike Shepherd, we stop being active.

With the aging of the Baby Boomer generation has come an Age Wave with longer life span bonus years. Now the search for meaning and purpose intensifies. In the book Life Reimagined, authors Richard Leider and Alan Webber provide a roadmap for discovering new life possibilities.

What’s next? we might ask, as we navigate today’s landscape. Become an explorer, they say. of not only of the world but of ourselves. Experiment. Keep a possibilities journal. Try things out. See what works.

Their Life Reimagined guidance system includes six practices:

Reflect on each step along the way, understanding your choices from the inside out.  
Connect with trusted friends and guides for feedback rather than journey alone. 
Explore possibilities with curiosity and courage.  
Choose options on which to focus and dive deeper to find what’s right for you.  
Repack: What do you need for the new way ahead? What do you keep or let go of? 
Act. Without action, nothing happens.

As Holmes says, life is activity. When we stop being active we turn away from the newness of life. Also, having faith in a Power greater than we are and in the eternal life of our soul enhances a childlike appetite for “What next?” and for joy in the game of life.

He concludes: “You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.”

And so it is.

It's Never Too Late

Recently, I sat down at my computer thinking, I have to come up with three Creative Thoughts for upcoming Presider assignments.

What can I speak about? I felt empty. I was sad about the recent death of a friend in my age range, and about an acquaintance, also in my age range, moving away because of health challenges. And I’d been thinking: Am I in denial to stay here in my home, alone?  I have another birthday coming up; the sands of time are running and I'm getting older.

All sorts of catastrophic panoramas played out in my mind. What if?  I don’t even want to go there. But I’ve been feeling tired; my extra weight is weighing me down. I wonder about my health, my vitality, progress on my projects. Basically I've been down in in the dumps.

I guess the Universe heard me, and responded.

Before I even touched fingers to keyboard, the phone rang. My friend Elaine called to tell me of an inspirational story she’d seen on television...about an 80 year old body builder, Ernestine Shepherd. I could immediately see Ernestine on the computer, thanks to the Internet. Wow!

Here’s someone who ls a personal trainer, professional model, competitive bodybuilder and was declared the World’s Oldest Performing Female Body Builder by Guinness World Records in 2010 at age 75. Then she lost that title to another septuagenarian, Edith Connor, age 77, in 2012. So here are these two 80 year olds, pumping iron and who are, in the words of Ernestine, "determined, dedicated and disciplined to be fit."

Reportedly, when Ernestine prepares to compete in 5K and 10 K races and run marathons, she’s up at 4 am for a 10 mile run, runs 80 miles a week, and of course trains in the gym with weights several days a week.

What do these women eat, I wondered. One source says Ernestine eats 1700 calories a day, mostly from boiled egg whites, chicken, vegetables and liquid egg white drink. Edith Connor’s recommendation is don’t diet: see what foods increase body fats; set reasonable goals.

Edith didn’t enter her first body building competition until age 65...She has three sons, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Well, really!  After reading about these two ladies, I decided to throw on my clothes and go for a morning walk.   I’ve been going to the gym at least five  times a week lately, doing the elliptical and the bicycle, but it’s obviously not enough. I don’t see myself running 80 miles a week, but I need inspiration to up the ante, and this is giving it to me.

As it often happens with the Internet, one source leads to another, and I found myself looking at the work of Vic Johnson, writer and motivational speaker, and his book “It’s Never too Late and You’re Never Too Old.” He writes about 50 people over 50 who illustrate changing mindsets and cliche’s about age, as well as overcoming obstacles related to health, income, retirement and reinvention.  Age is not an excuse for inaction, giving up on dreams, or finding new successes in life, he says.

Johnson’s book profiles people who illustrate letting go of old notions, embracing the new, moving out of one’s way, ignoring past failures or lack of progress, experimenting and embracing new possibilities. Perhaps a skill we’ve been honing for years hasn’t blossomed, he writes. But by focusing more time and effort, we can create a breakthrough moment.

Yes, we might have to start slowly and set reasonable goals, but with persistence we CAN rejuvenate and reinvent ourselves. I like this quote from 19th century writer George Eliot: “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

Ernest Holmes would agree. As he says, life lies open to us, full, rich and abundant. So get out and manifest who you want to be.

And so it is.

The Lion and Science of Mind

 

"Lion" photo by Pareeerica on Flickr.  Some Rights Reserved.

The big news recently was the trophy hunt killing of Cecil, the beloved lion from a Zimbabwe nature preserve. According to Internet reports, he was lured from his protected environment, shot with a bow and arrow, tracked for some 40 hours as he fled, bleeding, and then gunned down with a bullet.

The story has sparked disgust and outrage around the globe. I was incredibly sad, even though I knew nothing about Cecil before the story broke. Cecil was such a beautiful animal; tourists came from far and wide to enjoy and photograph him.

He can be seen on video coming straight toward tourist vehicles, lying languorously in the road, playing with his mates and cubs, and growling at his brother, Jericho, who shared the pride with him. Being a photographer, I thought: I would love to photograph him. Why would anyone want to kill him?

The hunter, an American dentist who reportedly paid $55,000 for the hunt, was photographed smiling with the dead Cecil, and took the trophy head and pelt back to the US.

His guides have been arrested for illegal poaching and a petition rapidly gained 100,000 signatures here to have the dentist extradited back to Zimbabwe to face criminal charges. He says everything was on the up and up, with permits, etc. and the guides are responsible.

Why has this story gained such traction? Major reasons are that lions are charismatic animals and Cecil had a name. And when you name something, it gains importance. Cecil was named after Cecil Rhodes, the British mining magnate and for whom the country of Rhodesia is named.

Although there are reportedly 20,000 lions remaining in Africa, Cecil stood out because he had a beautiful dark mane, lived in a park, wore a collar as part of a Wildlife Conservation Research project and allowed tourists to come reasonably close to him.

Since 2008 he has worn a GPS tracking collar. Researchers have learned that the cubs are usually killed by the next dominant lion, so the impact can be larger than just a death such as Cecil’s.

The lion, with a rapidly declining population, is listed as vulnerable, not yet as endangered. Some want to change that classification, and prohibit trophies from such hunts entering the country.

I began wondering how to approach this topic from a Science of Mind perspective  All of us, including the lion, are expressions of God in action. We don’t recognize evil, although we do recognize free will, at least in humans.

So the dentist has a choice...he chooses to hunt and kill animals. He wants trophies, and there are photos of him on the Internet with his many trophy kills.

Ernest Holmes says, ‘Love is the greatest power in the Universe. It is the basis and source of everything.” So to my mind, killing animals for sport is the farthest thing from love I can imagine.

He also says: “To believe in a just law of cause and effect, carrying with it a punishment or a reward, is to believe in righteousness.” So perhaps that is now being carried out.

As the flak continues, the dentist reportedly has closed his practice and is in hiding from protests, angry threats, public shaming and possible legal fallout. In Zimbabwe, tourist revenues have fallen as international tourists cancel their trips, and perceive that country as not serious in protecting animal rights.

It’s a complex issue, and there are many arguments given on the Internet for and against trophy hunting. Some cite the revenues coming to Zimbabwe to further conservation efforts. Some discuss the many other injustices that deserve our attention.

But as we look around our world we see our God-given natural heritage -- not just wildlife -- disappearing. Cecil’s death simply makes this more strikingly visible.  He becomes a symbol, a banner, for conserving the natural beauty of our planet. It’s up to us to decide how we can be part of the solution.

Ernest Holmes also says: “Even God cannot do our job for us.”

And so it is.