You Have to Get Older but You Don’t Have to Grow Up

While canning beer at the local brewery - https://www.ashtonbrewing.com - in late June, a friend working with me told me with a big smile about the fireworks she purchased for 4th of July. She went out a couple of nights before to test out some of them and asked her husband if he wanted to come out. He declined, but after a few minutes of hearing the fireworks, he cane out to play. The two of them proceeded to light a bunch more, smiling and laughing as they did. After they were finished, her husband said “we have to get more for the 4th!”.

This got me thinking about a twist on my recent “Stay Curious” post, this time about staying young mentally by getting back to being silly just for that sake of it like we did as kids. We tend to lose – or suppress – our innate curiosity and our ability to just have fun without worrying about being viewed as “childish”. We become self-conscious and sometimes worry more about what other people will think of us than how we feel. A consequence that’s a mixture of experience and age I guess. Getting over that inhibiting thought process will relieve stress and help keep you mentally and physically young.

Next time you are at the beach or poolside, take notice of the adults playing in the water, either with kids, or with other adults. All lost in the pure joy of splashing about in the water. They’re not worrying about what others think, they’re just having fun and living in the moment. It doesn’t get any better than that.

My neighbor frequently goes out in his backyard with his two young sons in the evening to kick a couple of big inflatable balls around. We can hear them laughing and talking, just having fun trying to out-kick each other. Once in a while, a ball flies over their fence, followed by cheers and jeers, and one of them running out to toss it back into play. Hearing them having so much fun makes us smile too – it’s contagious just like the happy shrieks of children playing (outside).

Eating certain foods can provide that pure joy too. An ice cream cone on a hot day is not just a cold treat, it’s an opportunity to have fun licking the ice cream and crunching the cone. Powering into a pile of wings is another of those opportunities. You can be delicate, but it’s more fun to have sauce all over your fingers and lips as you devour them. On an Odd Couple episode (Google it if you’re too young to remember the show), Felix (the neat freak who has trouble letting go) chastises another character for happily slurping a mango with juice dripping all over his hands and face because he is being so messy. The character smiles and says “it’s fun”; looking at Felix like he doesn’t get it – which he doesn’t.

Yes, we do have to get older – at least until science finds a way to change that – but we don’t have to grow up. We do have to act grown-up at work and in most social settings, and that can make it tough to let our inner-child out. Taking opportunities to experience the pure joy in things like we did as kids is therapeutic and helps keep us young at heart. Stop worrying about how others will view you and go out and play!

www.RetiredandInspiredat55.com 8-08-2022