The responsibilities of a mature life often force us to focus on things that are immediately in front of us, and in that sense, “settling down” can be a good thing. But such focus doesn’t have to translate into a constricted state of mind. No one can age well who lets go of their sense of wonder. You might find yourself thinking things like, Oh, that museum. Been there, done that. But if you make the visit anyway, you’ll realize that what you saw at the museum in your younger years was only a fraction of what your eyes can see now….
All of us have seen people who’ve aged with sorrow; we’ve seen others as well who’ve aged with joy. It’s time to intend to age with joy, deciding that the joy of youth is a good kind of joy, but it’s not the only kind. In fact, there is a joy in knowing that after all these years, we’ve finally grown up.
— Marianne Williamson, The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife, p. 4-5