Blog 3282 – 10.27.2024

You’re Still You

Most of us carry a picture of ourselves in our heads taken when we were in the prime of life. For many that picture was snapped when we were about eighteen or nineteen years old. Aging gracefully is a big problem for many because we have a hard time recognizing that aging stranger in the mirror. The reason for that difficulty is the same as the root cause for most of our problems in life – a lack of love. The lesson that the Velveteen Rabbit learned is that “love makes us real” but it also makes and keeps us lovely still even when we are no longer “shiny new.”

The light of love can still make us shine. The Eagles sang, “You can’t hide your lying eyes” yet it is also true that the we cannot hide our loving eyes nor should especially from ourselves. If we cannot love that person in the mirror it is highly unlikely that we can truly love anyone else either.

Next time you look in the mirror recognize and realize that you are still you. That face and that body may show a few battle scars and a little wear and tear from our travels but that need not dim the light of love shining from those lovely eyes.

Let your light shine no matter your age for you are still you.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z0En_TFqs8FXkdNoX-vyjxD1d7PjEJYu/view?usp=drivesdk

You’re Still You

A faded picture of yours truly at nineteen standing in front of my locker in my barracks at Davis Station on Tan Son Nhut Air Base just outside Saigon, South Vietnam in early 1970.