How my journey began

LATER LIFE:  The AGE of MIRACLES

What Matters?

I believe my experiences since entering my own later life can be a valuable part of the conversation about health and longevity in our 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond. Entering this stage of life is a unique part of our existence that, unfortunately, many people undervalue and fear.

My “mortality moment,” when I realized I was entering later life (15 years ago at age 58), scared me and shifted my life forever. I dreaded a future of increased health issues, decline, and finality. Yet that fear caused me to take stock and ask myself what matters? To gain further insight, I asked myself these questions:

·      How do I spend my life from here on in?

·      How do I keep my life vital and meaningful?

·      Is there anything I can do to mitigate and prolong the inevitable decline that comes with aging?

I have been fortunate to be granted answers to all these questions in the affirmative. What I’ve learned and what I practice are the subjects of this website, my blog, and my book.

The center of this mission revolves around my two daughters, who were a toddler and infant when I experienced my “mortality moment.” Becoming a parent in my fifties was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I wanted to be an active, loving father to them for some time to come. I still do. So far everything I’m doing is working, giving me energy and health in abundance, with fitness levels as good or better than 20 years ago.

Two overarching questions presented themselves to me: “What matters most to me?” and “Do I matter?” I instantly answered with “My two young daughters matter most to me” and “I matter to them.” I thought, Sticking around as a vital, energetic father for as long as I can, especially given my older age, is the most important thing I can do with the rest of my life. This is how I want to be remembered.

This insight was no doubt linked to the death of my father when I was seven years old, and I did not want the same fate to happen to my children. This was the fuel for my passionate immersion into everything I could study and practice regarding health and longevity.

Moments of illumination or awakening can happen at any age to anyone. They are the stuff of inspiration, dreams, creativity, and “health” in its truest meaning. They are profoundly “inner,” as in coming from somewhere deep inside, the source of which we can never quite put our finger on. Yet we experience them as coming from the deep center of our being, our soul. Some say it is conscience, gut, or instinct. This is where, and how, the miraculous comes into everyday life.

My inner experience of life and health, gratitude, and appreciation for existence as the person I am makes my life so much more than I had realized before. I DO matter, not for what I achieve but for who I am.

I am living, and proposing, a changed experience of later life and an entirely new chapter of existence at this stage of life. Yet this concept is not new. Many traditions in other cultures value the profound uniqueness of this time of life. The Hindus have Sannyasa, the period of later life of renunciation of material desires and a turn toward spirit. The Japanese have ikigai, finding your true purpose in life, what gets you out of bed in the morning, which is a mainstay of much of Japan’s longer-lived culture.

Many traditions of elderhood, both ancient and modern, illustrate and revere the singular wisdom provided by the vast life experience of older people. Many qualities cannot be learned and can only be acquired by having lived and experienced life. That wisdom comes from inside.

Our modern world has so many diversions from these practices, so much youth-seeking, that we have lost much of our ability to value this wisdom and this time of life. In my case, when I stopped chasing youth and squarely faced my mortality, youthful spirit and energy found me and led me to where I am today.

Health and Healing

            What is health, and where do health and healing really come from? What we don’t know about health and prevention far outweighs what we do know. Health is a system as old as life itself, a harmonic and beautiful way of cells and molecules interacting, playing in the complex symphonic life force in each of us.

Healing operates 24/7 and not just when we are sick. It is the essential dynamic of the universal gift of life. Appreciating it and supporting it is the best way to prevent illness from happening in the first place as well as keep our bodies functional and flexible as we age. And just like everything else in the universe, health is the system itself, not its parts. It is connected to everything else inside us: our physical bodies as well as our emotions, minds, and souls. Supporting any aspect supports all the other aspects. Likewise, damaging any aspect damages them all.

Join Me on This Journey of Health and Longevity!

            This website presents a mix of health practices I found to work for me, my own ponderings and experience regarding this time of life, and a variety of resources that can help you on your journey. I’ve also written and published a book, A Life Yet to Live: Finding Health, Vitality and Joy after 60, to complement and expand on these themes.

            In this time of discovery, life has become infinitely more precious to me than when I was running around achieving and doing this and that. And while I’m still very active the focus of my activity is very different than before. By changing how I perceive and value life, and myself, I have changed my experience of the world around me. The one thing I want to achieve in this website and in my book is to convey just how miraculous and full of wonder life and health are.

            I hope you will join me on this wonderful and healthful journey!