For this week’s writing challenge, we’re asking you to explore what age means to you. Is the the loss of youth, or the cultivation of wisdom? Do things get better as you grow older, or worse? There are many ways to interpret age, often depending on your relationship with the passing of time.

 I hear your voices: often you are louder than the living, and I appreciate your attention. On a walk, in the agitation of the city, we talk, passers-by may well think I am talking to myself, but, no, I am talking with you.

My dead siblings and friends, how could I forget you? You are just as alive as I am, since in my dreams, I often see myself after, after I have surrendered this fragile frame.  And you are there, welcoming, attentive, wise.

One achieves peace, in latter years, despite, or because, of the small indignities, the effort to do simple things.  Suddenly one knows the meaning of humility, the opposite of thuggery: the smooth appreciation of peace and kindness.

And one remembers, the beauty, the fears, the discoveries, how rich and frightening this was: living.  Walking along the shore, one sees the chessboard, when the Knight plays with Death: the Seventh Seal. The melody of the waves, the cries of the sea birds, the calm majesty of the world, at peace, one is with oneself.  The sky is blue, in this wind I hear your voices again, louder.

Soon I will join you, and kneel in front of my Maker. He or She, will know who I am, and you will vouch for me.