What Life Asks Us to Recall
Is it possible to feel young forever?
St. Augustine Fountain of Youth bottles—photo by author Anita Wasko.
It was the day after Cinco de Mayo. The date is only relevant because the person I talked to just missed being born on Cinco de Mayo. Her dad had hoped she would be. She was not.
"Happy Birthday," I had sung to her over the phone. Chris, my husband, chimed in also.
"I am too old," my half-sister said. (Okay, so her dad is my dad too.) "I don't want to get old," she lamented.
"You are not old," I said to her, somewhat surprised, amused, and partly trying to figure out why she thought she was old. She had only turned twelve.
"In six years, I'll be an adult," she said. "That is going to go by fast."
Uh, she got me there. She could be correct—six years could go by fast. Wasn't she just a toddler the other day?
When I later told Chris about this conversation, he said when he was a kid, he couldn't wait to grow up. He would have as much candy as he wanted, and no one would tell him differently. I am witness to his realized truth. He eats candy every day. (Okay, before you worry about Chris, he does take care of himself.)
Now back to my sister, I didn't want to dismiss her feelings, even as I hoped to reassure her. (Despite myself, I half-laughed at her plight until she told me, "It wasn't funny." Humph.)
I loved that she wanted to hold on to her cherished childhood. Why would she want to lose it to the responsibilities and aches of adulthood?
Then I recalled something I had told my dad once—the spirit never ages. I told her she had a wonderful, vibrant spirit, full of energy, playful, enthusiastic, and loving. Her being is who she truly is; her spirit will always be with her.
(I suddenly had this image of Peter Pan struggling to keep his shadow attached to him, losing it, retrieving it, and having it stitched on by Wendy.)
As for Chris, I saw his childhood spirit in his response too. It didn't matter what the adults told him. Instead, his energy resolved to be the decision-maker one day.
On the other hand, I recall sitting around the kitchen table a few years back, talking to a family friend, a family man with children, and a wife. He was a good, hard-working man, but it surprised me when he told me how old he felt. While I didn't feel old, he was perhaps ten years younger than me.
Had he lost sight of his spirit—the part that was happy just being?
Maybe my younger sister got something right here; her inner genius told her she might lose something as she got older.
“When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.”
But I hope not. I hoped she continued to bust “beyond the bounds of reality;” to be the superhero of her life.
The next day I visited my little sister, and she showed me a video she had created of her friend trying to fill a candy Pez dispenser. (Have you ever tried to fill the channel of one of those dispensers with candy? Not that easy.)
Her friend was in total concentration on the task until success; she triumphantly dispensed a Pez candy in her mouth. Graphics with giggles and cheering images streamed across the screen.
In that video, I saw my sister's creation and her future infinite potential. She saw the extraordinary in the ordinary and cheered life on with her creativity.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Conclusion
According to a July 2022 History.com blog on Juan Ponce de Leon, he was encouraged by the Spanish crown to discover more lands, plus he allegedly searched for rumored waters that rejuvenated people who drank from it.
Though legacy reveals he never found the Fountain of Youth, a 15-acre park in St. Augustine, Florida, exists named Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park.
So no “real” Neverland or Fountain of Youth. But, it’s fun imagining. And that we can take from our youth: imagination, wonder, adventure, play, and creative endeavors. Can you imagine those innate traits keeping us young?
I believe so. I’ll take a sip from my own fountain, thank you.