Vitality, The Real Kind, Can Be Hard To Find

Vitality, The Real Kind, Can be Hard to Find

After a certain age, you begin (at least occasionally) to wonder if you are still full of vitality, or if you are getting to the point where your best days are behind you and you might just be sliding downhill... There are some people you will run across who show no signs of lost vitality.  They are vibrant, alive and their eyes sparkle.  Usually, it appears to me that they are excited about everything they do.  Also true, from what I have seen--usually, it is because they have been allowed to pursue their own dream.  Some hobby or some leisure activity has now moved into the center of their lives.

My sense is that a pastime like golf, tennis, fishing, hunting, etc. loses its charm after a while, so they reach the same point of questioning their own purpose, just a bit later.  I still find a slice of that group facing their second half of life wanting something else.

It doesn't have to be service to others, although it often is.  I have seen people throw themselves into activities that are not outward-focused, and seen a spark of vitality for a time.  But that too comes to an end.  It's not that they run out of enthusiasm, but at some point, they begin to focus on the day-to-day trivialities that everyone else struggles with, and they become participants in the favorite conversational subject of many of my contemporaries--the health issues they face.  it actually sneaks up on you--believe me, I've been there--and before you know it you have spent a lunch you had hoped would produce some spirited conversation talking about the latest medical matter the participants are becoming acquainted with--either through direct experience of their own, or that of someone close to them.

But, now and again, there is someone who finds and sticks with a meaningful new direction.  Sometimes you only hear about it from others, because the actual person doing it it too busy to just talk about it.  The interesting thing I am starting to see is that this new direction is not always the first thing they have tried, but often something they were introduced to later.  In other words, they had to keep trying.  I was glad to notice this, as I recently gave up my third such activity.  Just this week, I have been thinking about it and am encouraged to keep tackling new things.  In the words of a surprising source, to me at least, here is something to look for:

"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist, but the ability to start over."--F. Scott Fitzgerald

So, stick with it, there may just be something out there that will give you just what you need, if you keep trying.