Concerning reaching old age, the 79-year-old Garrison Keillor wrote: “We have the benefit of drugs unavailable to our grandparents and things surgeons do to your heart or hip or knee, we avoided drowning, close calls on the highway turned out in our favor, we didn’t fall in with people whose hobby was opiates, we had mothers who told us to look both ways and we did.”
By God’s grace, I got to 76. It was Providence.
In reading the better obituaries, I note many journalists write beautiful, engaging stories that frequently describe lives well-lived. The obits remind me of how much older I am than many of the subjects.
Other than a touch of arthritis, I feel well and grateful. I didn’t earn old age. I have had my share of tribulation. But God has blessed me beyond anything I could have imagined. I am in the meaningful winter of my sojourn.
Garrison mentioned something that adds to my contentment in this 8th decade. “I’ve put away the clock and now I enjoy the time.”
Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey 