Excellent thoughts. I like to tell people that I refuse to “grow old” (but aging I cannot stop). There is a difference. Getting old, to me, means stagnation, petrification. One smells bad and gets murky, nothing fresh coming in; the other just gets hard and not pliable–a fossil of what was once alive. Besides that, my beloved grandfather told me over and over to “never get old”–until he passed away at 94. Some old abandoned orchards still may bear some fruit, but most old untended fruit tress quit bearing. At a coffee farm in Kona, I saw an ancient coffee tree that was still being harvested from. It was only about 5 ft tall, having been regularly pruned and tended. On wine shelves, you see more “old vine” varieties, that are smooth and mellow (my favorite). As Jn 15 mentions, to keep a vine fruitful, it must be pruned and tended regularly. So, my goal is to keep close to God, remain teachable, keep learning and fit in body. May I be successful. And as a side note, I am getting ready to take stuff to a gallery as a regular exhibitor!