I am no longer searching for who I am; I’ve figured enough out. What I do notice lately is that I have many days when I look in the mirror and ask, “How in the hell did this happen?” I haven’t decided whether turning 80 is an accomplishment or a shock!

The Power of Perspective
I have lived long enough now to have created a history of my own, and from it I have gained a thing called perspective. I have discovered that the gaps between my successes and failures have narrowed quite a bit. In some ways they have almost evened out. Don’t mistake me, though; the genuine loves have never dimmed, and the great losses still ache, but most everything else seems not quite as important as it once did. The job that didn’t pan out is just a memory, and the man I thought I’d never forget I can barely remember.

Walk With Us
I know this much. If the people who come into our lives do not get to be themselves, we will eventually be very lonely. Others cannot possibly be who we want them to be, and they cannot possibly fill the empty holes in us. They were never meant to. They walk with us, and we with them, along the multiple paths our lives will take.

A Work In Progress
When I look in the mirror at the face I did not plan on, I ask myself: “Am I growing old?” Then I remember a current TV ad that asks: Doesn’t growing old mean living longer? This is a really, really good question. On the other hand, growing old is an established condition. Not much we can do about that…but growing older is a work in progress, open ended, not fully established, still malleable. Given my choices, I think I’ll opt for the latter. And maybe, as Dr. Christiane Northrup suggests, I can become an "ageless goddess!" So, 80’s here. Nailed it. On to 90.

Margaret Stortz is an ordained minister of Religious Science and a regular contributor to GUIDE FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING: SCIENCE OF MIND magazine. Read more at MargaretStortz.BlogSpot.com