Why We Age

The other day I had an insight about the purpose for old age. It goes hand in hand with the idea of being conscious, and has to do with our need to detach from the material level of life.
We all come in to this earth experience as little ones—wide eyed and open to all possibilities. We’re in a body and it’s an exhilarating experience! As we grow, we become attached to these personas that we have taken on. We are either pleased with the way we look and feel, or not, and we dedicate time and effort to make the most of  what we perceive to be our potential. We are in the thick of life, participating and building ourselves in the material world.

Yet, if we are spirit having a physical experience, we are truly of another realm. Earth is like boarding school, and we’ve come here to spend our prescribed  number of years before graduating and going “Home.”

If the entire duration of our earthly experience was in the developing and growing stage, we might be bound by the endless prospect of glamour, achievement, family, and all the other things that we find alluring during the spring and summer years of life.
It is often only by being forced to detach from  things of youth that we begin to slowly turn toward another level of life that we may not have spent time with. It’s the inner life. It’s the apprehension of ourselves, not just for ourselves, but in relation to the larger context. What are we doing to make a difference?

As we gradually get older, we embody the vantage point of age. What was so important at 20 or 30 becomes less so at 40 and 50. The petty things we may have attached ourselves to take on different coloration as we grow into a larger context of who we really are.

We age because we need to. As the leaves have to be separated from the tree so that it can once again go into dormancy, we need this time to prepare for our next adventure. Out of the ashes of youth comes the distillation of a lifetime.

And if we are indeed spirits having a physical experience, it is essential that we detach from that experience at some point. When we no longer find ourselves  enmeshed in the pulls of life, we are able to leave life. Old age is the senior year in school that hones us and prepares us for the return journey to our ancient and eternal destination– back to the unified force field of Spirit—to Unity—to the undifferentiated.

Life is perfect in the way it moves us from beginning to middle to end. Without old age, we would miss the resolution phase of living. This is where the grapes of experience can distill into a very fine wine.kj
From Seasons of the Soul 2004