Rejuvenation. Renewal. Restoration.

Not unlike the rest of us.

Crews recently spent months dredging millions of cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor and pumping it back onto Delray Beach.

The result?

A beach that looks younger, wider, smoother, and considerably more photogenic. If beaches had Instagram accounts, Delray would be posting selfies by now.

It got me thinking.

Rejuvenation has become something of a national pastime.

Women smooth wrinkles with Botox, fillers, lasers, creams, serums, and enough products to keep the beauty industry happily humming for decades.

Men, naturally, choose the more primitive approach. They stagger into gyms at ungodly hours, grunt heroically while lifting things that have no earthly reason to be lifted. In this day and age, men are becoming more metrosexual so rejuvenation is part of their vocabulary,  as well.

Gardeners tear out tired annuals, enrich the soil, and plant fresh blooms. A neglected yard can become spectacular with a little attention, water, and patience.

Old houses receive new roofs, fresh paint, and updated kitchens.

Classic cars get restored.

Even cities reinvent themselves.

Apparently, everything deserves a second chance, excluding Republicans and the Orange mafia.

The funny thing is that none of this is really about looking younger. It is about refusing to surrender to decline.

There is something wonderfully optimistic about rejuvenation. It quietly utters, I’m not finished yet.

Maybe that is why we do it.

We repaint the walls. We replace the furniture. We take up pickleball. We color our hair. We learn to cook ethnic cuisines.  We finally clean out the garage that has been auditioning for Hoarders since 2014, not because we are trying to become someone else, but, because we are trying to become a slightly better version of who we already are.

Nature understands this better than we do. Every spring, trees leaf out again. Gardens bloom. Lawns recover. Even beaches, it turns out, occasionally need a fresh layer of sand.

Rejuvenation is not pretending time has not passed.

It is acknowledging that it has and deciding almost everything and everybody is still worth the investment.