I was recently inspired by these words of the noted writer, Helen Keller, whose life inspired the play and movie The Miracle Worker: “I know that life is given to us so that we may grow in love. And I believe that God is in me.” Continuing. she wrote “…the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower, the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.”  For many reasons, these words inspired me.

Lately I have enjoyed different moments chatting with a few of my high school peers. In our conversations, we decided it was glorious to be young. However, we also agreed that there is also glory in maturity, despite its losses, aches, and diminishments.

There comes a time when we are immersed in the years of our retirement. This period of life is quieter and slower than the unfurling of our youth. Many of our families that have shared a large part of our lives are gone. But their words of wisdom live on in our memories.

In their own way, they gave us many of the pieces which fashioned who we are, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. They loved us and their love molded us. Eventually many completed their own journey and left us reminiscences which occasionally stir in our hearts. The author William James gives this simple advice: “If we can change our minds, we can change our life.”

As our maturing group examined our own retirements, we agreed that retirement is a quieter process than the excitement of youth or the display of midlife competency. Some of my peers see these later years as a time of releasing, instead of acquiring, as growing lighter rather than gathering seriousness.

“Nothing is made in vain” voices Sirach from the Scriptures. Each in its turn is good. While embracing the splendor of youth is easy, my friends and I decided we must also make friends with the years of our diminishment. We do this through a graceful surrender and while it is happening still let ourselves be ourselves. Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, wrote, “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I ended where I needed to be.”

We are in this world, whether young or retired, as pilgrims on our way home. To inspire us, Jesus in his transfiguration shows us a vision of the shore. Within this image we see the beauty of God momentarily flashed out in the person of Jesus. If life and death are to have meaning for us, we embrace these words of St. Paul: “I consider that what we suffer at the present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that awaits us.” (Romans 8:18)

Be who you are and be that well, as a testament to the master craftsman who created you.

-Saint Francis De Sales