To distract myself as European and local election results trickle in, I did a poll of my own.

I stumbled on this today and reading through it, reckon that in the Kingdom of Mary, Old Age has taken 9.091% of the vote:

Old age does not always begin at 60, or at 70.

For some it starts at 45 or maybe already at 35.

A paradox, isn’t it?

Look around you and you will see many women who are still young but old and others, old but with youth shining in their eyes.

Know that gray hair doesn’t define old age, nor whether you’re using a stick.

You’re getting old when your soul says, “I’m tired.”

You get older when you no longer believe you are worthy of love.

When you think you’re not beautiful enough to be admired on the street.

When you don’t want to look at yourself in the mirror when you respond to a compliment: “But it’s not like that, you’re exaggerating”.

Your old age begins when you get tired of interesting things, when you are not interested in learning, watching, hearing something new.

When you are annoyed by young people’s entertainment, the crying of a child in a tram gives you headaches when you prefer solitude over communication.

When the first gray hairs may start to appear, but your heart is already wilted, without energy.

When you say “I don’t want” too often and rarely make plans and draw dreams.

You get older when in your experience, you managed to accumulate too many disappointments, falls, pains and… whenever you feel like getting up from the bottom is getting harder.

When you find refuge in your house and don’t want to go out.

When you mourn more often and rarely find reasons to be happy and grateful… to God, to people, to life, to ourselves.

There is no bottom line to old age.

For some old age starts in 80s, for others in 40s…