The idea to call the season of winter for those 65 and older is just not right. Winter, with its cold biting winds, its cold ice and snow—doesn’t sound appealing to me while living smack dab in the middle of it now. So, let me mess with your mind a bit. Use your imagination. Imagine reversing the whole ‘Season of Life’ idea.

Let’s look as winter as being a time of discovery, as we enter this world with a clean slate. It’s a time of being helpless, being totally dependent on others to hopefully treat us with kindness and love. We are like sponges, absorbing our environment—whether positive or negative. The need for a positive upbringing, using love, guidance, and discipline will help us grow up to get along with and respect people and things. We are better prepared for entering early education.

Then, there comes Fall, a cool and colorful time. We begin to develop to show preferences for different activities and in people. Making friends can add excitement that can color our lives like colorful fall leaves dancing in the wind. This time can be dangerous if our upbringing hasn’t helped us to learn respect for people and things. How we are taught about life during this fast-growing season will affect the coming adulthood. Then, there comes summer when life can be at its most active and best. Matured, we have the freedom to choose work in order to support ourselves and our families. If we learned and practiced a healthy and wise lifestyle earlier in life, this season should be the most accomplished. Even though this is the 3rd quarter of our lives, we feel like we will live forever and forever.

Then before we know it, we will began seeing unwelcoming signs of aging. We’ll joke about how doctor visits have become part of our social lives. However, it can be called our Springtime because it’s a time of marveling over the miracles of first seeing fresh green new grasses and trees, new blooming flowers welcoming music of chirping birds and children’s laughter from nearby playgrounds.

Yes, as we enter our 4th quarter, we seem more aware of God’s creation. We learn, however, we’re not a young as we used to be when we begin suffering from unexpected bruises, sprains, fractures, or even broken bones after trying to do what we thought we still could do. Some push themselves so hard, they suffer more seriously with heart attacks or worse.

We have to come to a place to face reality and learn our limitations and do the best we can. Many never learned to enjoy taking it easy and now wind up frustrated, depressed, and unsociable.

I wish I could help more people enjoy the latter days. But since more and more people today put down the Good News that brings peace, happiness, joy, love, and a sound mind, I ask myself, shouldn’t everyone want these? I have to believe they don’t know or were never taught what these qualities really are, so they can’t relate. They need a Thesaurus to look up these words to understand them, then finally they just might crack open the Bible and receive a revelation— and much, much, more. It’s never too late and could even help one in his later years to see, instead of a dark cold time, the wonders and beauty of the new Springtime in their lives!