Peaceful Aging: Meditations for Living a Long Purposeful Life

January 5

Aging is out of your control. How you handle it though is in your hands.

—Diane Von Furstenberg

And that’s the good news. How we handle aging is up to us. It’s going to happen as each moment of unfolds. Are we going to greet each new instant with dread or enthusiastic anticipation? The choice we make will indeed make a huge difference in our level of joy.

Frankly, I want to grow older with joy in my heart. I’m assuming the same is true for you. And the availability of continuous joy is as close at hand as our next breath, coupled with our next thought. Easy peasy. No one is deciding anything about our acceptance, our choice of joy, our anticipation of what comes next, or our growth but us. Indeed, this is the one thing over which we have full control. People are not within our control. Nor can we control situations. But our own thoughts and actions rely fully on our decisions. What a full measure of glory is ours in this ability to embrace each and every day.

Today will reflect your own thoughts coupled with your actions. Period. Let’s move forward with grace.

January 6

Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.

—John Lennon

We have all gathered many friends over the decades of our lives. And every one of them has come with a smile. Thinking of our age as a collection of friends and smiles is such a refreshing way to look at the passage of years. It’s likely that many of us have lost the capacity to run a marathon, or even to jog three or four miles on a daily basis, or to play tennis for three hours straight. And just possibly we no longer can handle all the household chores that used to be a cinch.

Many of us have left occupations that were extremely demanding but we still have the drive to gather with others for simpler tasks. And more importantly, we still want to make a difference in the life of someone.

It’s making those little differences that give vibrancy to the life that remains to us. We aren’t done yet. The desire to matter to someone is the greatest of all achievements. And that desire is still strong, or you wouldn’t be reading this book.

Today stands before us fresh and open to whatever desire calls out to us. Grab it fast. We deserve this gift.

January 7

The most important thing I’ve learned in life is to love others and accept their love in return.

—Jim Burns

Ah, the simplicity of this idea is so delicious, and that’s something that is true at any age. Offering love to whomever crosses our path is not only the kindest thing we can do but the one thing that can assuredly make the rest of one’s day peace filled and worth repeating again tomorrow.

What love brings to our lives—both in giving it and receiving it—takes the guesswork out of what’s next on the agenda for this day. And I think we can feel pretty certain that whomever is approaching us is our next perfect opportunity to both offer love and hopefully receive love in return. And if it isn’t returned, it may just be that our offering made a difference anyway.

Let’s not allow our expectations of others to determine what our next act will be. Doing the loving thing will for sure be repaid in kind, sometime, somewhere.

Today is open. Let me choose to fill it with loving acts. Not only will I feel the better for it but I just might change the trajectory of someone else’s life too.

January 8

Being interested in something means I stay young even though I have grown old.

—Alice Merryman

What an important idea Alice Merryman, an 80-year-old woman I met a few decades ago as she was tearing down her shed singlehandedly, shares. Indeed, having something to do every day that interests us is the day brightener we all need. And it need not be something amazingly grand. As Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can all do small things with great love.”

Bringing love into the moment in whatever way we can changes our experience in each minute we continue to live. And the added plus is that with each of those moments that we are sharing, someone else gets the gift of our love too.

We simply can’t escape aging. No matter who we are, how much money we have amassed, or the list of degrees or other accomplishments we have achieved owing to our creativity, we will age, some of us with grace. The opportunity to age comfortably is however available to all of us. It’s our decision. And having a reason to get up every day is what makes the difference in how we see the world around us.

Today stands before us, awaiting our choice to make the most of the day and all the moments in it—to be peacefully engaged in all that it offers. Let’s be grateful, and let’s engage lovingly.