I haven’t lost interest in the activities that I enjoy. I don’t have feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. I don’t find it hard to get through the day. With all my aches and pains I can still LAUGH.

I walk with a slight limp but I still manage to put one foot in front of the other. I forgave my parents for the crime of throwing me into the world with clubfeet. But I was lucky my mother got me treatment right away so I wouldn’t be a cripple.

So, at approaching eighty, I haven’t yet grown sour and bitter and I enjoy my hobby of writing. So I’ve got it licked!

Humans are the only species that are consciously aware of their own mortality. I use my mortality as a motivator to enjoy what life I have left.

It’s a great irony that humans are both brilliant and savage, caring and indifferent, creative and destructive to self and others. So, the capacity to be aware of your mortality and to conceptualize has negative and positive consequences. I never had fame or wealth but in many ways I’m glad I’m a nobody, I’m happier! I am happy I’m free to do what I want to do with some limitations.

One by one death claims your loved ones and your friends. The older you grow the faster your peers die off. Finally you stand alone and there is nothing you can say or do to prevent it.

One of my friends said to me the other day:

“The past seems horrible to me, the present is gray and desolate, and the future is appalling.”

I thank my lucky stars I don’t share that bleak viewpoint.

I don’t concern myself with the future. My past, whether good or bad, I made the most of it. I live in the present.

I have lost the illusions of youth, but I still have enthusiasm for writing because of my curiosity about anything and everything. I hope it never leaves me.

One of the best things about growing old is the ability not to take things too seriously. I still have a belly laugh once in a while.

Those who are truly living corpses, are the middle-aged people who are stuck in their ruts and imagine the status quo will last forever.

I’m in favor of offering us a painless way out when our quality of life is nil. We didn’t ask to be born, so why should we be denied the privilege of making our exit when things become unbearable?

I see my life more of a comedy than a tragedy. The man that takes life too seriously is in big trouble.

In conclusion, with the world in such a mess, I try to accept my fellow man for what he is, good, bad, or indifferent.

I did my best, but it is never good enough!

Time keeps moving forward constantly. Time tends to carry us along no matter what. A friend said to me the other day:

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could STOP time or at least SLOW it down.”

I replied: “I’m sorry, but we can’t stop or slow time down. Look at that clock on the wall, notice the second hand move through one minute, that pace continues and does NOT STOP!”

My friend is 60 years old, he couldn’t believe that age was here already, and before he knows it, 60 will become 70!

***

Our days go by swiftly, they come and go, never again to see even one of those past days again.

***

My friend spoke again:

“I wish time would let somethings REMAIN!”

I thought: NOTHING REMAINS!

***

To me, later years are a time of losses. We lose our contemporaries, we lose our physical appearance, we lose our health, we lose our time, and our enthusiasm wanes. So, we live in resignation, accepting our age, with reluctance, and what we no longer have.

***

But there is light in the tunnel, we realize at least we are still ALIVE! Having good humour is the answer. I laugh to myself when I look at the liver spots on the backs of my hands. We create euphemisms, older instead of old, senior citizen is the one I use.

I feel young in my head, but then I look into the mirror. Who is that!

***

The thing that keeps me going is my writing, in which I enjoy researching different subjects for my blog and novels. This tends to overcome the restrictions imposed on my body by old age. The sage, Seneca, called old age an incurable disease. Come on, let’s get a cure! Ha, ha.

***

Is there a bright side to all of this?

Well, I love to reminisce about when I was a young man. I know I’m taking refuge in the past but it is good escapism. There is research that old people who reminisce a lot tend to live longer than those who don’t.

***

But, I try to live in the present as much as possible. It has been said, that hope for the future affects a person’s quality of life in the present. Older people tend to lose hope and that diminishes their present. But most senior citizens can readjust and make their existence worthwhile by resigning themselves to what is lost and making the most of what remains.

***

So, the overall picture is NOT as bleak as it seems. A lot of older people retain enough hope to consider life worthwhile well into their eighties. If you’ve got fairly good health and are financially secure, and have a passionate interest, you can look forward to quite a few good years

***

Old age happiness can be achieved with a combination of resignation and a commitment to living in the present and a perception that life is still good.

I will end with a joke that is true:

The only thing worse than growing old is BEING OLD!

What is the number one essential for living a life that’s true to who and what you are?

The essential is facing your own mortality. In other words, Facing Death.

Does that term scare you? Well, it shouldn’t because it is a great motivator to living a full life.

Motivator? Yes, when you face your limitation (death) you are liberated for the great experience of actually “living” and making meaningful choices.

***

Your limitation in life is your mortality. Being aware that your death is an inevitable part of your future can spur you on to make a meaningful life for yourself.

***

Embracing your death forces you to take seriously the choices you make about how to live. The inevitability of death makes life valuable. As you get older the supply of life gets smaller, but the appreciation of life gets greater.

***

The other essential to living well is “Living In Time.”

Living well requires you to have the right orientation toward your past, the present, and your future. Remember all your choices are made in the present.

***

What does time mean to you, on an everyday basis? Does it feel sort of disconnected between past, present, and future, with only the present having any real significance?

The everyday time seems like you’re IN TIME, and the present is where you exist, so it is the most important of the three times, past, present, and future. If you’re IN TIME, you feel like you are moving through it, it is EXTERNAL to you.

***

If you think of time from a first-person point of view, you understand time from the inside. It’s called “Lived Time.” There is no exact boundaries between past, present, and future. Your life is connected ACROSS time.

***

You naturally move forward toward the future, but you have to move forward from SOMEWHERE. Your existence has a starting point, your history (past).

Your Self emerged out of your past. So, you exist in the past!

***

You didn’t ask to be born in this time or in this culture. Certain possibilities are available to you in this time, but not all! Another limitation! Just as death is a limitation your birth is a limitation. When, where and to who are all birth limitations.

**

So, your past is NOT dead! Your past is in you, giving light to the present. Your options were limited by your birth. But this is YOU, it’s what makes you an individual.

***

Look at time another way, you also exist in the future! You’re always looking ahead, what’s next? You are running toward your future in anticipation.

***

In conclusion, we tend to join the past and future in the present. The present is your focal point where life comes together into a WHOLE across time.

In your present you see your world and your existence in a new way.

You face death and that means your meaningful actions are unwavering.

You move forward into the future as a unique person.

***

The joining of past and future, birth and death is expressed in finding meaningful actions in the present. You have made the connection between past, present, and future.

***

Life as you experience it has a meaningful flow. The past, present, and future make a unified existence. Your life is spread ACROSS time!

***

Remember: Time is so powerful it is given to us only in small quantities!