"These things happen to us as we mature," are not words we want to hear from our physician. It has been my privilege to hear them twice in the last few years. Once in relation to my hearing - It's not what it used to be. The "crickets" I enjoy listening to on my screen porch - and can't be heard by anyone else - are called "tinnitus" or "ringing in the ears." Now I've got some kind of inflammation of the nerves in my foot which evidently also comes with "maturity." I think what that means is - no one knows why these things happen, so let's blame it on maturity!
You know you've reached "maturity" when the cashier gives you the senior citizen discount without asking. That event - which just happened - will remain as emblazoned on my mind as the last time someone "carded" me for buying an adult beverage exactly thirty years ago.
I enter my seventh decade this year which is a backward way of saying I celebrate my sixtieth birthday. (Yes, the zero birthdays complete the decade, so the day after begins the next decade of life - It's the same as with the centuries.)
I am told that these kinds of reminiscences come with "maturity." Ah, well. May we mature in the faith, mind, and spirit as much as we mature in age and the body.