Hikers — Photo-Artistry by kenne
As aging hikers
We walk the trails
Under the desert skies
Where nature welcomes
And challenges us
In our active desire
To remain forever young.
— kenne
Joy Otrey and Kenne Turner On Butterfly Trail In The Santa Catalina Mountains — Image by kenne
Keep practicing the art of living.
Like any art, the art of living
will evaporate if you don’t stay involved.
We often hear the statement,
“If you don’t use, you lose” —
a principle most obvious
in our physical bodies.
Spend three years sitting down,
when the three years are up,
you won’t be able to walk.
The same applies to any skill.
Stop using your
creative imagination
and it will evaporate.
Stop stimulating
and challenging your brain,
it will slowly deteriorate.
Stop caring,
and your conscience can switch off.
Look for opportunities to stay involved.
Not only should you stay involved,
but the quality of involvement
can produce a better understanding of reality.
None of us are immune
to the influence of our own world –
our friends, our family, and the books we read
are constantly shaping our thoughts and our feelings.
Life is what our thoughts make of it.
George Bernard Shaw
won a Nobel Prize when nearly seventy;
Ben Franklin
produced some of his best writings age eighty-four;
Pablo Picasso
put brush to canvas right through his eighties.
Isn’t the issue how old we think we are,
not how old we are?
Keep practicing the art of living.
“May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
when the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
and may you song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.” *
— kenne
( *from Bob Dylan’s song, “Forever Young )
Bob Dylan — Image by kenne
I am a child of the forties,
a rebel of the fifties,
becoming a native of the sixties.
Each decade saw the influence of art;
not as the creator, but in me,
the person is listening and seeing
what the creator sent along.
Together we have traveled as companions,
moving along and being moved.
Now, in my driftwood seventh wind-turned age,*
“I am of the old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise.”**
An age whose troubadour companions have included:
Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, George Clinton, Paul McCartney,
Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Brian Wilson, Lou Reed, Jimi Hendrix, and Jerry Garcia.
Whether a mere coincidence with others, I am ever grateful —
each having moved me to thought in the course of my daily life.
Often alone with my thoughts, each shaped by others in a sea of music,
I picture an image, one I might take with my camera.
Knowing the words and images don’t come out of nowhere,
but are the result of shared paths for my feet to use,
I always keep an eye on my traveling companions,
and people down the road who might bring a fresh breath of air,
making me younger than I am now – he said, pausing with reflection.
“May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.” ***
— kenne
(This posting is deticated to all those born in 1941. We are traveling companions.)
*Dylan Thomas — Poem On His Birthday
** Walt Whitman — Leaves of Grass
*** Bob Dylan — Forever Young
Related articles
Bob Dylan — Image by kenne
Keep practicing the art of living.
Like any art, the art of living
will evaporate if you don’t stay involved.
We often hear the statement,
“If you don’t use, you lose” —
a principle most obvious
in our physical bodies.
Spend three years sitting down,
when the three years are up,
you won’t be able to walk.
The same applies to any skill.
Stop using your
creative imagination
and it will evaporate.
Stop stimulating
and challenging your brain,
it will slowly deteriorate.
Stop caring,
and your conscience can switch off.
Look for opportunities to stay involved.
Not only should you stay involved,
but the quality of involvement
can produce a better understanding of reality.
None of us are immune
to the influence of our own world –
our friends, our family, and the books we read
are constantly shaping our thoughts and our feelings.
Life is what our thoughts make of it.
George Bernard Shaw
won a Nobel Prize when nearly seventy;
Ben Franklin
produced some of his best writings age eighty-four;
Pablo Picasso
put brush to canvas right through his eighties.
Isn’t the issue how old we think we are,
not how old we are?
Keep practicing the art of living.
“May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
when the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
and may you song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.” *
— kenne
( *from Bob Dylan’s song, “Forever Young )
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