Age With Mischief and Audacity

Your time on Earth is limited. Don’t try to “age with grace”, age with mischief, audacity, and a good story to tell!

Once upon a time we were young and full of dreaming into how we wanted our lives to be. We thought we had all the time in the world and that we could achieve “success”, be perfect at what we were doing, and certainly felt we knew what life was all about – whatever that meant at the time.

It was so hard to make mistakes as we thought somehow we were to be perfect in everything including our relationships and our appearance. It wasn’t until we found ourselves at the other end of the human life cycle that all those “mistakes” took on an entirely different form.

And now we can hopefully laugh when we make mistakes, understand we will have forgetful moments, and accept our on going dramatically changing outer appearance. Knowing that inside we still feel the same person we always have been ….and that we are still learning what life, passion and creativity is all about!

I have a 16-year-old granddaughter who is right smack in the middle of exerting her independence from parents and others who seem to want to set restrictions on her or interfere with her right to privacy, how she looks, or who she chooses as friends and how much time spent.

When I really think about it, as we get to the last stage of life, aren’t we doing the same thing? Severing our ties to the mainstream narrow perception of how an elder should act, think, be and exerting our independence.

For this is a time of life that is definitely filled with freedom to simply be the person you came in to be. Wrinkles and all. It is up to us to live as fully as possible while we have the ability to do so no matter what the culture says.

And that may mean getting up to some mischief, audacity in the face of restrictions, and some wildness thrown in here and there for good measure….with plenty of laughter by the way!

We must never lose the desire to do the things we truly love, because it is the saying ‘no’ to life that ages us. It’s not about aging. It’s about living.

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“Go on living as fully as possible while we have the ability and the gifts. Why can I not go on until I drop? I don’t want to fade away. I’m not going to fade away God willing. Life is for living. To live life as fully as I am able to.” ~Jenny Jackson

This is the third story that we’ve filmed with Jenny. To watch the previous two films, see links below: All Cats Are Black –    • You are BEAUTIFUL as You Are   “Love, Mummy” –    • FAMILIES are COMPLICATED   I recently read…

“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” – Samuel Ullman

We all age – it is the normal process of living. But rather than being apprehensive about our aging bodies, let’s celebrate our growing perspective. Rather than worrying about our changing relationships, let’s embrace the opportunity to make new friends with people who share our interests. We must never lose the desire to do the things we truly love, because it is the saying ‘no’ to life that ages us. It’s not about ageing. It’s about living.

This film features Jenny Jackson. Filmed in Cape Town and Hermanus, South Africa.

Who is Reflections of Life? We are Justine and Michael (previously known as Green Renaissance). We use our passion for film making and our love of storytelling, to remind our audience of one simple truth – that we are all human. The more that we understand and believe in this interconnectedness, the more we will treat ourselves, one another, and planet earth with a greater sense of compassion.

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Gaye Abbott, Wildly Free Elder, 03/29/24