Blooming In The Golden Years: People Who Have Still Flourished In Old Age

Blooming In The Golden Years : People Who Have Still Flourished In Their Old Age

Age is just a state of mind. One maybe in his youth, but if he is living a life of squandering, a sexagenarian who is still productive in his work is in much better position. You can be productive at any age, no matter how old are you, as long as you have the zest for life, you can still produce and you can still achieve. It all depends on your attitude towards life.

Take note of these several personalities who have still made great achievements in their old age.

Helen Keller is a world renowned deaf-blind who wrote many articles and books. Although she became blind at nineteen months old and deaf soon after, she led a very active life for more than eighty years. At the age of seventy-three, when most people are retired, Helen started working on a new book "Teacher" which was published two years later. Helen continued to live to a ripe old age of 88 when she died in 1968.

George Burns (1896-1996) famous comedian once said, "Age to me means nothing. I can't get old; I ‘m working. I was old when I was twenty-one and out of work. As long as you are working you stay young. "

For fifty-three years of a tireless ministry, John Wesley called himself "a man of one book" the Bible. He wrote over 200 books, edited a magazine, completed dictionaries in four languages - all in his own handwriting. He crisscrossed England on a horseback for a total of some 250,000 miles. For years he averaged twenty miles a day. He preached 40,000 sermons and rarely less than two a day and often seven, eight or even more. At the age of eighty three, he was still writing books and sermons for fifteen hours a day. At age eihty-six, he was still preaching twice a day.

Corrie ten Boom , a Dutch evangelist, started to travel around the world to preach the message of God's love through Christ in her sixties. She continued her worldwide evangelistic activities until her eighties. For years, she traveled alone, preaching the Gospel of Christ in Cuba,America, Germany, South Africa, Japan, Bermuda, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, England, Denmark, Taiwan, Israel, India, Korea, Argentina,Eastern Europe, Russia.

When she was not in Holland, her travels took her to places for anyone to believe. Who could believe that this old lady was in the midst of Civil Wars in Africa? Who could believe that she was so close to the fighting in Vietnam where she hears bullets snicking and whizzing through the foliage? But there she was in Vietnam crawling creakily out of jeep to deliver the Gospel to a bewildered soldier.

Corrie lived until her ninety-first birthday, Her old age years are much productive than her earlier years.

Here is a list of some more achievers in their old age:

- Miguel Cevantes wrote Don Quixote when he was almost seventy years old.

• John Milton wrote Paradise Regained when he was sixty-three.

• Noah Webster wrote his monumental dictionary at age seventy.

• Benjamin Franklin helped to frame the US Constitution at age eighty-one

• Alfred Tennyson published the memorable poem Crossing The Bar at age

Eighty three.

- Michelangelo was in his late eighties when he painted some of his

Masterpieces.

- Galileo made his greatest discovery when he was seventy-three.

- Thomas Edison still worked in his laboratory at eighty-three.

• Arturo Toscanini conducted an orchestra at eighty -seven.

• Mark Twain wrote "Eve's Diary" and "The $30,000 Bequest" at seventy-one.

• Titian painted his great work "The Battle of Lepanto" at age ninety-five

and his "Last Supper" at age ninety-nine.

You are never too old to still achieve in this life as C. S. Lewis quotes :

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ."

It all depends upon your attitude and perspective in life. You can choose to bloom at whatever age you may be. As along as you have the zeal for life and belief in your purposes and pursuits as Amos Bronson Alcott says :

"While one finds company in himself and in his pursuits, he cannot feel old, no matter what his years maybe."