Younger Every Day

I think it’s a mistake to define youth as simply having fewer years than others.  Youth has to do more with our state of mind, our way of seeing the world, and our way of receiving what the world has to offer us than anything else.  Most very young people aren’t even aware enough of what they have to take advantage of their youth, so I think it’s time that we start looking at youth as something that we are, something that we grow into as we move along in life.

Youth is yours, if you want it.  It’s in the way that you feel a sense of awe and wonder when you see a rainbow or hear the song of a bird.  It’s in the way you laugh when you hear something funny, or how your eyes tear up when you see or hear something sad.  Your youth is in the way you wake up, with enthusiasm and energy, ready to take on the world–which is easily something you can train yourself to do, even if you have stopped waking up that way.  Youth is in the way you trust others with your secrets and the way you’re proud of your flower collection or your scrapbook.  Your youth is simply a part of who you are, and while it’s possible to allow your youth to grow into a magnificent, wondrous part of yourself if you hang on to it and continue to nurture it, most of us leave it behind when we have a few more years under our belts, and we neglect it and refuse to nurture it.

Your youth, though, is a very special part of who you are.  Don’t leave it behind.  You don’t have to be a kid to be young, and some of the youngest people I’ve ever known have spent quite a few decades on this planet.  Love your youth, and feed it constantly with the beauty and wonder of the world and the people you know, and one day you’ll find that when Jesus was talking about being as a child, he wasn’t simply speaking in metaphors.  Live youthful, think youthful, and stay youthful.  It’s completely up to you.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure
of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the
joy of the game of living.  In the center of your heart and my
heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages
of beauty, hope, cheer, courage, and power from people
and from God, so long are you young.

Samuel Ullman