“The longer I live, 
the more beautiful 
life becomes.” 
Frank Lloyd Wright

Life is not without its pains and challenges. We are all confronted with experiences, situations, and individuals who make life difficult for us. Despite this reality, life is good — or, at least, it can be, if we allow it to be.

I recently turned 72. That’s a lot of years! To live this long, it’s inevitable that I would have encountered times of struggle along the way, and I have. For the most part, those difficult times have come and gone. I have no doubt that there will be other challenging times in my future. That’s just how life works. Yet, when I look at my life through the lens of gratitude, it’s clear to me that I’ve been blessed in more ways than I ever deserved. 

If I acknowledged my birthday only once every four years, I would now have had a total of 18 birthday celebrations. 4 x 18 = 72, right? The photo on the left side above is me at age four. The other image is me today. 68 years have passed since that first photo was taken. Those years included countless joys and sorrows, victories and defeats, successes and failures, acceptances and rejections, hopes and disappointments, and myriad experiences, both positive and negative. My life has not been perfect, but it’s been very good, and for this, I am incredibly grateful.

As I face the reality of getting older, I am encouraged by the words of the influential Swiss psychotherapist, Carl Jung, who wrote, “A human being would certainly not grow to be 70 or 80 years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species to which he belongs. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.”  

I’ve learned that aging gracefully isn’t about looking young, it’s about embracing who I am.

The English poet, Robert Browning, offers this encouraging invitation: “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.” I offer this same invitation to you.