When I think
of New Age I immediately think of music: Enya, Yaz, Enigma... I don’t consider
myself an expert in this genre, yet some of their CDs hide in a box somewhere in
the basement. These beats and lyrical notes have an ethereal, philosophical,
and relaxing vibe. As my Yanni Pandora station played the other day I thought
of the term “new age,” and it made me think of my parents and in-laws as they
enter their seventh decade…definitely a different era for them, a new age to
embrace. Like the music, will it be relaxing? Seeming to belong to another
world?
And why skip
ahead to “Searching Seventy?” While our parents’ lives change, and not just
they accepting getting older, it brings a dear truth for us cresting midlife…our
own questions/different reality. For those with living parents, do you see
them in a new age? How do you see them in a different light?
Without
exposing my family’s details, I will say that I have seen a transformation
unfold, and I’m learning how I hope to be in the future. I have witnessed a
sense of a finite time remaining, a practical approach preparing for old age,
and an increased sentimentality about life.
For me,
though, I always attached these thoughts and feelings with my grandparents. I
remember sitting in their sunny, small ranch. At the kitchen table, covered
with a clear, plastic tablecloth, I waited for Grandmom to bring me “coffee”—warm
milk with a splash of the real stuff, in a flowered cup and saucer. My Pop Pop
would be sitting to my right, expertly carving off pear skin and slicing the
fruit into pieces to share. At age 6, 11, 15, and 20, I’d be sitting in the
same spot, they telling me how lucky I was to be young, that years go by so
quickly. I would listen and conjure up images of their younger selves, and
promise to remember their advice—and think, how lucky that I had so much time
ahead.
But now it’s
my parents and in-laws doing their version with my kids. And I blink—like it’s
some time warp, or maybe it’s tears, because now I see them as I once saw my
grandparents. And I selfishly wonder, is the most difficult part of my parents’
aging the knowing that I am only 28 years behind?
I love the
Enigma song, “Return to Innocence,” but I haven’t heard it in years. When I googled
it yesterday its video popped up on YouTube. Like fate was reading my mind, its
video highlights older people and gives a sense of life’s love, purity, and simplicity…and
finishes with time reversing, showing the characters as younger versions. A
beautiful reminder that life is but a wave of moments and memories, and that in
the end all of the craziness, drama, and stress will be forgotten…and those simple
sentiments, like sharing a coffee and pear, those are what should stick. A
reminder to think of older people with their younger souls intact. I wish for
my parents and in-laws a return to those effortless virtues in this decade…for
them and me.
If you'd like to view the Enigma “Return to Innocence” video:
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