When you enter the food court you have to register your name, I’m guessing for contact tracing just in case. Of course you had the usual fill in the blanks - Name, address...AGE. Age! I paused for a while...what should I put. Two things entered my mind. If I put “60”, they might question why I’m out, because our city being in MGCQ (Modified General Community Quarantine) discourages senior citizens from going out for non-essentials. So maybe I should just put 59?
The second thing that entered my mind was - WOW, I AM 60 YEARS OLD! Hahaha. It hit me...hard! I am 60 years old. I just celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago. I know I am 60...reality just hit me when I had to write it down in the registration.
I have no problem with being 60. For me it’s just a number. And although I’m starting to feel my body telling me I’m getting older, being 60 isn’t really bothering me. I do remember when I was a teenager, looking at all my relatives who were 60 and above, and saying “wow, they’re old”. Well, now teenagers are looking at me and saying the same thing. But it’s ok, I don’t mind. It’s good to be 60.
Before the pandemic I was excited to become 60, with all the discounts and perks that come with it - watch movies for free, discounts in restaurants and other perks like getting preferential treatments like not having to line up when paying bills, in airports, etc.. But with this pandemic movie houses are closed, I’m not going to be travelling soon and although restaurants are opened we haven’t really gone out as a family to eat. Maybe when we order “take out”. And I can’t enjoy those benefits until I get my senior card, which I have to wait for a while before I get it since the Senior Citizen’s Office in our City Hall was closed for sanitation when one of their employees was found to be infected with covid-19. But, it’s ok. I’m not in a rush to get it. And once I do get the card, then I’ll enjoy all those benefits for the rest of my life!
I am also processing my SSS (social security pension). Imagine, the government is now going to start taking care of me (partially, at least). I’m also going to get a refund of all the PAG-IBIG (housing benefits) contributions I’ve made through the years. Again, I’m not rushing. Eventually I’ll be enjoying them for the rest of my life as a senior citizen.
Yes, the benefits are there. But being 60 does remind me of one thing - how finite I am, how temporary My life is. And with this pandemic taking lives, especially of “high risk” senior citizens, it does remind me of how fragile I am (reminding me of the song of Sting, the singer). With my asthma I am considered a “high risk” senior citizen, which makes me extra careful in where I go, who I’m with, and following all the health protocols as strictly as possible.
But getting older simply means that eternity with my Lord and Savior is slowly becoming a reality. And while I’m still alive and well, I have His Word to assure me as I continue in this journey He has placed me in. This is one of them:
Psalms 139:13-16 (NIV)
13For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
From the time He created me in my mother’s womb, till the last breath I take, all the days ordained for me have already been written. From the first to the last chapter, to the last sentence of the story that He has written for me, He holds me in His sovereign and loving Hands. I have this truth to hold on to, and enjoy day by day, as what He has written comes to pass.
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