It was my daughter’s 21st birthday. Dinner was finished and cake and ice cream were about to be served. As I looked out on my three grown children I was amazed at how quickly the years had gone by. My youngest was now 18 years old. My daughter was a college graduate. My oldest boy was 23 and getting older every minute. Just thinking about it I could feel my hair getting thinner and grayer and my wrinkles getting deeper.

I dragged my aching, aging body into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Yes, the hair was thin and gray. The face and forehead were wrinkled a bit. The few extra pounds of middle-age were showing in places. Then I gazed into the eyes staring back at me from the mirror and I saw him: a young spirit shining out of them from deep within me. He was the spirit that still delighted in the twinkling lights of the fireflies every Summer. He was the spirit that still soared along with the birds in the morning sky. He was the spirit that still thought the laughter of a child was the most beautiful music in the world. He was the spirit that had always known that bodies are temporary but that life is eternal. He was the spirit that had always tried to keep one foot in the wonder of childhood and one foot in the love of Heaven.

I smiled back at that shining spirit and took my youthful soul back out to the kitchen table to join my forever young children in some red velvet cake and vanilla ice cream. I thanked God too for reminding me that I will always be young no matter how old I get.

Always remember who you really are. You are a beautiful, shining, loving soul. You are blessed by Heaven and loved by God. You are both eternal and forever young. You can never grow old unless you let yourself. May all your days be blessed with youth, laughter, and joy then. May all your years be full of loving God, yourself, and others.

Joseph J. Mazzella joemazzella@frontier.com