DTH-XII-0059
“I've made peace with getting older and I want to do it with purpose.”
Most people fight aging like a defeat; you've stopped, and that's wisdom, not surrender. Every stage of a finite life has its own work. The work of these years is to become an elder worth having — to convert decades of living into something the young can use. Age well by aging on purpose, not just enduring it.
Your Practice
- Name what this stage of life is uniquely good for. Lean into that work.
- Convert your years into counsel someone younger actually needs. Offer it well.
- Tend the body you have so it serves the purpose you've chosen.
- Model aging without fear or bitterness. The young are watching how it's done.
The Architects
“Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible, be daily before your eyes; but chiefly death: and you will never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion, Chapter 21 (Elizabeth Carter translation; Wikisource)