Makkah

I KNOW two sisters, one a 38-year-old employee and the other a college student approaching 22. You might assume that of the two siblings, obviously the younger one is more jovial and outgoing while the older sister is sober and less responsive to what is going on around her.

However, the truth is exactly the opposite. The young sister lives her life in a way that will make you think she is old, cold, quiet, and would rather stay at home most of the time. Nothing seems to interest or excite her. She hates traveling and is overweight by 15 kilograms, a fact that does not bother her at all.

Her older sister is exactly the opposite in every aspect of life and she looks 10 years younger for her age.

It may seem it is easy to determine your age when you are no longer youthful and when you grow old. To some people, the signs are grey hair, lines and wrinkles on the face, and a bend in the back. But the matter is actually much more complicated than the few visible signs of aging.

So if you are only in your 20s but you live without any ambitions or desires, and if you are satisfied with your simple job that doesn’t even meet your basic needs and you do not seek to improve your situation, then you are not youthful. When you look at everything that is happening around you as something of the ordinary that is so frequent and that doesn’t impress you, then you are not youthful. When you don’t switch up the way you dress and keep wearing the same style of clothes all the time, then you are not youthful. When you chose an unhealthy lifestyle so you gain weight and risk getting diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol even when you are not yet 40, then you are not youthful. When you lose the excitement and passion for life, and you steer away from adventures or new experiences of life, then you are fast losing your youthfulness. If changing your mind and convictions becomes very difficult for you even after you were proved wrong, then you are not youthful.

Youthfulness is not just a number of years that starts diminishing from the moment of you are born. It is rather a feeling that rises from the inside and reflects in a person’s actions, choices and decisions.

This difference in eternal youthfulness might not have any effect on siblings, friends or parents and their children. But it will probably be a serious problem between spouses because it will affect the way each of them choose to live their lives. This contradiction in their nature will reflect in their conflicting decisions and options that might eventually lead to many problems and perhaps result in a breakup, because they share one life and raise the same children under the same roof.

On the other hand, their lives will become easy and seamless if they learn to agree and understand each other. Each of them can offer concessions and make amends for the sake of the family and for the future of their relationship.