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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Twilight Years of Life (07/02/09)
"Half of the year is over. It went by so fast. One day blends into another."

Those words were written in the familiar handwriting of my eighty-eight year old relative. The letter came today filled with news about family members, generations younger than both of us. It was warm and informative, handwritten in black ink on stationery decorated with dancing bears, more personal than white computer paper peppered with mechanical black print.

I re-read her first three sentences over again and smiled to myself. We are both in our twilight years, the quieter, less active pause between the waning energetic years of our life and its counterpart, our final resting home with our Heavenly Father.

My relative resides in an assisted living complex in the South, far away from her once owned home in the North. Her usual vibrant countenance is more subdued now as she is confined to a wheel chair, but still able to enjoy frequent visits from her family and the weekly services at their nearby church.

My world is changing too, as I relish spending more time snuggled in my home enjoying the frequent talks with my patient husband rather than joining the noisy confusion of the outside neighborhood filled with honking car horns and impatient drivers talking on cell phones while trying to maneuver their vehicles into first place.

In my youth I questioned how this time of life could be enjoyed when analyzing the aging and "slowing down" amongst the elderly. But now I can be a witness to the pleasure that's derived from God's plan for these final years of preparation to going home. It is peaceful to look forward to and not a condition to shy backwards from.

As I re-read my relative's newsy letter I knew that she, too, has found that adapting to the twilight years has even more to do with the same attitude expressed by a verse in Paul's letter to the Philippians. "Not that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, in this to be content." Phil.4:11*

*King James Version of the Holy Bible
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This article has been read 866 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
BAYO OMOYIOLA, JR
07/09/09
How lovely
Mildred Sheldon
07/10/09
I enjoyed this very much.
Virgil Youngblood 
07/11/09
Great words of testimony. Thanks for sharing.
Charla Diehl
07/11/09
You captured the topic quite well with your story--I especially liked the paragraph that describes what the twilight years are. Good job.
Allen Stark
07/12/09
Your piece reminds me of how wonderful it is to sit in my deck swing overlooking a beautiful expanse of the midwest, instead of driving the Los Angeles freeways.
Dee Yoder
07/13/09
Being content at all stages of our lives just makes us happier all the way around! I enjoyed this story!
Norma-Anne Hough
07/13/09
Beautiful thoughts expressed here. Well done.
Allan Morelos
07/15/09
I love your MC's sense of peace and contentment.
Good job!
Barbara Thompson Young
03/06/10
I just turned 64 and I am finding that my days seem to fly by, like a fast moving train. I think I've entered another phase of my journey! Loved your article.