“The joy note comes only to those who have preserved the child still young in their hearts, the child-spirit, strengthened, mellowed, sweetened, grown wiser but not older, simpler, more conscious of giving than of getting, of radiating than of absorbing. People say that the world is growing older, but in the spirit of the joy note we must realize that each new day is as fresh from the hand of nature as if it were the first edition of the first morning. The world is ever young, it is we who grow old.” ~ William George Jordan
Many have voiced the idea that the world is going from bad to worse. The concern is echoed by each successive generation and can be found not only in contemporary literature, but in the oldest written records. The older generations look at the younger, shake their heads and tell stories of the “good old days” when “things were better” and “people showed more respect.”
Is this really true? Are we, despite our advances on so many other fronts, slowly regressing as a civilization? Or is it that we perceive it as thus as a result of changing internal factors (in mind, body and heart) which come as a result of our advancing age?
In either case, coming to the realization that “each new day is as fresh from the hand of nature as if it were the first edition of the first morning” is the key to unlocking the door to a better, brighter future. Rather than overlaying the future with a prejudiced heart and mind and a jaundiced eye, it makes perfect sense to let that which is made new be new.
Most things that we know as old, especially those which we disparagingly refer to as “same old” are made so by virtue of our perception and not as a result of the underlying reality of that person, place or thing. Everything in our world is constantly changing, including our bodies, minds and hearts, and I am convinced that human opinion ossifies the world around us much faster than Father Time would wish.
Dare to behold the newness is the world around you. Challenge yourself to create newness more than you bemoan oldness. The world is forever young; you can be too!
Gregory Hake 
Every day is a new beginning. I love the morning time as there is so much promise for what is to come!
LikeLike
It’s a beautiful, glorious new day, let it be so!
The past is where it is, passed away, gone forever, yet here we remain. Let’s let our living reveal that we are alive, here, now, forever more and so choose to remain as young as we now are…..Forever.
Thanks for providing the perspective that will let it be so!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
I’m convinced that a better way starts with how you choose to see and interact with your world. Time is what you make of it. You can choose a passive role in its passage, expecting things more or less to come to you and certainly life will tend to look the same as always – similar outcomes. Or you can choose a more active role, injecting your own new expectations by pursuing adventursome leads and discovering openings to fill in your own desires, dreams and ambitions. Life cannot ever be the same ‘ol same ‘ol this way. It’s up to you to find out, and no one knows for sure what can become of this attitude expressed in the world; this is where new things come from!
LikeLike
One way to look at things is to compare our lifetime to the totality of human experience. To think the world has been getting old and stale simply in the experience of your lifetime seems a bit pompous to me. Most of us have been alive for less than a hundred years, and in that time the world has been more rapidly changing than in most lifetimes in the recent past, so we have even less reason to bemoan the world as a stale place. However, that is really not the point, as the world is renewing itself regardless of human experience. Just take a look outside at this fall day; the complexity of nature does not allow for staleness. Like you said, it is just a matter of perception, because if each of us is truly willing to look, we could find a non-quantifiable number of new things every moment.
LikeLike
I don’t think he’s suggesting naivety but more like a stone smoothed by the waters of time and experience rather than worn down. The joy note as William Jordan describes it is “…the child-spirit, strengthened, mellowed, sweetened, grown wiser but not older, simpler, more conscious of giving than of getting, of radiating than of absorbing.” This is inspiring. With the big push today to slow down the effects of aging we have a winner! Thanks.
LikeLike
Being young in heart let’s you see the world as children do, exciting and always with rapt interest. I think the key is they have’t decided what the result should be they’re just living the moment. They are still in tune with the joy note.
LikeLike
So true, so true! Thanks for the reminder this morning!
LikeLike
Thank you Gregg!
LikeLike