RECLAMATION (the reclaiming of desert, marshy, or submerged areas or other wasteland for cultivation or other use.) (Dictionary.com)

There is a special wisdom in very old age, and it’s too easy to discount it when what it really is is a rare privilege. Don’t let other people’s attitudes negate it for you. You can have epiphanies at any age, you can have a new life at any age. Don’t let a false resignation keep you from using what you are learning. Don’t let assumptions (yours or other people’s) keep you from incorporating new beliefs, new habits, new ideas, and new ways into your life; it can be just as exciting now as when you were young, though in a different way. A braver way. A more seasoned way.

Of course the end can come at any time to cut off your progress, dash your hopes, but on the other hand you may have years still ahead, and in any case you will have had this bonus. Making it work with your old-age disabilities and losses is part of the challenge.

Matching your energy to your necessities is part of it. I’m trying to remember all the common sense things I already know. Eat right (whatever that means to you). Sleep when you need to. Love the things that make you cheerful, and never feel like you don’t deserve them.

Realize that everything you read and watch and hear isn’t necessarily true. Very likely your experience and wisdom are more reliable on many subjects than what you’re reading anyway.

Run things by your own personal worthiness index before you spend time on them. You can make deliberate, drastic new changes in what you expect of yourself if it enables you to renew your life and allow for what you know is important to you.

Don’t surrender too easily to the sweeping competence of the young. Weigh the value of their youth and savvy against your longer experience and comprehension and figure out what you believe and respect.

And enjoy your own company. We cherish the help and companionship we can find; we need it. But we can also take an independent kind of pride in navigating an age we thought we might never get to.