” Act your age lad, not your shoe size.” was a phrase my father often retorted to me. He said it to me from a young age and periodically repeated it right through my teen years and beyond.
I’ve always had a ‘Peter Pan’ attitude and was one of the main reasons I got into trouble so much at school. I couldn’t concentrate for very long without having to fool around in class. The slightest thing would distract me. I used to titter at anything and often got into such a state of laughter I would do a little dribble.
Truth is I was always very immature and never took things seriously, choosing instead to be the one that made everyone else laugh. I didn’t save my money, instead choosing to buy sweets, then toys, then gadgets. My moral always seemed to be “Live for today and don’t worry about tomorrow”. Of course, when tomorrow did come, I was broke and often in debt. But I didn’t care.
People used to comment about how I appeared to not be grown up and always the kid at heart Perhaps my poor attention span was part of my reason for failing at school. Maybe this, and my parents somewhat unloving attitude were the reasons I was who I was. Who knows! I was just a kid at heart and acted the role out successfully for far too many years. Right through my twenties and thirties I remained immature, irresponsible, and frivolous about life. I married my first wife in the belief I would be left on the shelf in my mid twenties and therefore marrying her would make me a man. It didn’t, and after fifteen years of living together, our marriage came to an end.
By then, I had become a little more mature, though still lacking the common sense a forty year old man should have. It’s common knowledge that women are usually more mature than men, starting earlier to become wiser and more responsible. My Peter Pan lifestyle went unnoticed to me. It was who I was and I didn’t know another way to be.
When I met Jane, my partner and best friend to this day, she was quite the opposite. A slighty older lady, well educated and completely mature in every sense. But something drew us to each other. I was punching above my weight with her. Surely a good looking woman like Jane, with degrees and a middle-class upbringing wouldn’t be attracted to me, a seperated man with children, crappy job, little money and no prospects.
Opposites in so many unexplainable ways. Jane was the perfect lady for me and I needed to step up to the mark. Learn to be more mature, reliable, and dependable. Her wisdom and maturity brought something to my life at that time. I was (and still am) madly in love with her. She was caring, non-judgemental, kind and beautiful. Everything I had never had and unknowingly always wanted.
Jane brought out the good in me and over the years together, I changed. A leopard can change its spots and I did change as a person. Alongside my discovery of spirit I believe I became more mature, more responsible, and therefore more reliable.
There was one day, I can remember to the moment. when my life reached a pivital and radical change of direction. I was lay on the beach in Portugal on holiday. I was oggling some beautiful topless girls on the beach in front of us when I heard the following words loud and clear in my mind.
” You are no longer an old youngie, you are a young oldie.”
Ouch, that hurt! I was forty three years old and should start acting my age. That word reversal phrase changed me, for the better I believe. And now, on the other side of it, I look back and realise people weren’t laughing with me, they were laughing at me. I was the fool, not the comic. I wasn’t mature enough to see it at the time, but now, as a middle-aged oldie, it couldn’t be clearer.
It’s a unique memory, that day in Portugal. That one phrase downloaded from the spirit source stopped me in my path and changed the direction of my life. For the better I believe. When did you stop being an old youngie and start to be a young oldie? Try and define when it was for you, as near as you can.
