Do not resent growing old. Many are denied the privilege. 

Irish proverb

No matter who you are, where you live or what you do, you have something in common with everyone else on this planet. Tomorrow at this time, you will be one day older. No matter how you spend them—reading in bed, planting a garden or working on a cure for cancer—everyone lives life one day at a time. We can’t slow down, much less stop, time. We cannot bring back the past or reach forward into the future.

Then, when we have lived enough days and years, we will inevitable and inexorably arrive at what Solomon in Ecclesiastes calls “old age.” (Solomon hadn’t heard that 60 is the new 40.) Traditionally, growing older hasn’t been a bad thing; it is even celebrated in some countries. But ours is a culture that offers few prizes for graceful aging.

So if you are growing old, plan to one day or are already there, I would like to offer a few insights from the wisest man who ever lived—with a little help from me.

1.    Everything in this life comes with an expiration date: our health, our looks, our abilities, our relationships. To attempt to hold back time is as vain as trying to capture the wind.

2.    Don’t wait to cultivate your relationship with God. Whether we are taken quickly or our faculties slowly ebb away through natural processes, one day, as the old hymn says, “the things of this earth will grow strangely dim” and we will be face-to-face with God. Whether that is good news or bad is up to you.

3.    Generally speaking, the kids don’t want your stuff. For your sake, begin to edit and simplify so that as your energy diminishes, you can spend it on you, not your possessions.

4.    Most important: the wisest person is the one who finds enjoyment in life. Regardless of age or position, we can do no better than to find happiness in the life we live and the people we are living it with.

5.    Accept the fact that life is about change. The only question is how you will handle it. For most of his life, my husband was an avid tennis player. One day the doctor told him that he could continue to play tennis, but he was looking at knee replacements in the very near future. He quit tennis and began hiking. Now he walks every day. And he has enjoyed them all.

I know there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in his toil—this is a gift from God (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13).

Nancy Shirah