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.

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

Kindness is never wasted.

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.

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

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.

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.