Old friends become more and more precious to us as the years pass. They can look at us for who we once were and who we are now, appreciating the difficulties we have overcome, the abilities we have acquired, and the ways we have stayed true to ourselves.

By accepting our aging and letting its lessons broaden us internally, we become calmer in the face of the body's inevitable deterioration. Becoming less attached to our outer appearance is so liberating.

With our intimate partners, we can take responsibility for the parts of ourselves that are hardest to deal with - because we finally know ourselves well enough to do so.

Kindness is never wasted.

With grown children, we can look back at both our mistakes and what we did well in our parenting, having conversations with a greater degree of honesty than was possible before. In getting older themselves, our adult children may begin to comprehend the burdens and strengths we carried from our own parents.

You will find your way. Don't be afraid of getting stuck in some of the necessary compromises. Learn everything you can from each experience, even if something seems irrelevant to your true purpose.

The older we get, the less prone we are to putting off what we really want to do, therefore you will be able to seek out new directions later.

Be patient with yourself and take heart. Your self-confidence will grow if you seek challenges and worry less about the initial insecurity.

The real action is interior - all the growth that cannot be seen externally and to which we tend to have little access until we have experienced it ourselves.

Stay open and curious, and realize that the best is yet to come.

In many ways, the physical dimension of life becomes less important as the soul enlarges. In my late twenties, I was astonished by the elders with whom I began to spend most of my professional time - how vivacious so many of them were, once I looked beyond my negative bias.