Check out a great post from our friend and “not a grown up” Shawn Reed!
I am still not a grown up, but this morning I woke up to two odd facts: That I was in Ireland, and that I was now fifty years old. Both were new experiences for me, and make me wonder why I haven’t experienced them before now.
Getting older is, of course, something none of us can choose or not choose. Going to Ireland, however, was a choice and a good one. It is significant because of family roots, because of the company of loved ones, and because it has to be seen on winding back roads from behind the wheel of a 9-passenger Opel Vivaro. All are metaphoric for my personal idea of being a grown up: roots, loves, and risks.
Our roots are not ours to choose, and that makes them often seem just the thing that we might not have chosen. Just the same, our very physiological fabric is the result of generational work. We look, act, think, and feel much like those farther up the family tree. And it’s worth embracing, if not at least remembering. “Do not forget the rock from which you where hewn,” says the book of Isaiah (51:1). Another translation says “Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined.” I like that because it reminds me that as much of an original I like to believe I am, the raw materials came from somewhere else.
Our loves will, at the end of our days, define us. The people, places, ideas, and gifts we revere are the drivers in my life. They are what I seek, and with my half-century of experience, I find myself not wanting more of everything, but more of whom and what I am certain that I love. There is peace and comfort in the familiar; there is sanctuary in the chair, the book, the wine, and the precious few that you know you love.
Our risks will, I believe, define us most of all. Where the familiar road provides us rest and comfort, the unknown path breathes life into us. My own life has been marked by a continued series of risks and rewards, and the blessings I have found so profound have come from the willingness to put aside fears and take the odd chance. From the earliest days, we risk life by merely taking steps. We touch hot things. We run with scissors. We break bones and get stitched. But our lives are fuller because of it. Our skin is thickest at the scars, and our memories will always race to the times we took the chance.
“Remember that time we went to Ireland and hiked the Cliffs of Moher on your fiftieth birthday?”
-Shawn
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