Aging/Psychology/Mental Health
What You Should Know About Getting Old
We will all experience old age if we’re blessed to live that long, but it can be the best time in your life.
I once spoke to a group of older men in Houston about aging. When I finished, “Don” stood up, raised his hands in the air, and said, “I’m 82, and this is the best time in my life.”
I thought, What does he know that I need to figure out?
I then realized that what Don had said about aging was far more important than anything I had said about it. I began to search for some answers, and it changed my life.
We associate old age with loss.
When I turned sixty, my parents and older brother died within six months of each other. Some of my friends died too. It felt like the buffer that protected me from death had been removed. I was growing old, and all I could see was a period of decline.
My skin was losing its fight against gravity. I’d gained weight, and it was harder to lose it again. My doctor diagnosed me with sleep apnea after I had fallen asleep while driving. Each morning I had to slap my face several times to remove the dents that my C-Pap straps put in my face.
