WHAT IS DIFFERENT BEING SEVENTY?

                                                     (From 50 or 60)

It is more comfortable just sitting and relaxing a lot. I can meditate easily without even a book with me.

I get tired in doing only a few hours of work; I am tired in the early evening, whether or not I worked much.

I am a lot more analytical; my mind is constantly thinking through issues of the past, present or future, or just matters I come across. I wrote an essay recently on whether the Bible and science should be agreeable, for no special reason at all.

I am thinking a bit more of the ultimate future, how idyllic heaven will be in the presence of Jesus, etc. which gives me a slight thrill of the actual reality what will really be, not in some vague future but almost in the measurable and predictable future, not 50- 60 vague years away.

I can see a long distance back, some things very clearly, absolutely distinctly, while who was here this morning or what all I did today, is something of a haze and I could easily not think of some detail of what happened unless reminded.

I have doubts of my mental functioning when I mistake some of the most obvious things, like looking for the right keys when I stand at a door to unlock it; it’s worse when someone else is standing there with me. .

I am not motivated to plunge into tasks that should be reasonable to do, nor can I make long range plans easily, like, if we move, should we build, buy, or rent?

I am more mellow and can give in more easily to another person than I used to. I also do not like to argue even if I am confident I am right.

Probably I am closer to people emotionally than I used to be and persons are also emotionally closer to me and mutually wanting to express it with touch or embrace.

I am no longer consistently a morning person rather than an evening person, but both ends of the night are too short. The days are too long and the nights are too long, breaking up in the middle of either period for a break from wakefulness and sleep, yet still never do the ends meet without tiredness. The complexity of these statements is indicative of the difficulty of explaining this phenomenon. In other words, I am too tired in the evening and too tired in the morning, with often wakefulness at night and sleepiness by day.

After all, I didn’t turn 70 suddenly; I have been working at it for a long time!