“Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold, you have escaped not from one master but from many.”
--Plato

“Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.”
--Max Ehrmann

There is a great emphasis, particularly in the Western World, on the physical body. Great importance is placed on strength, size, beauty, etc. Those individuals who over the years have learned to identify with their real self (instead of their physical shell) grow older with ease. They have that sense of calm and freedom of which Plato spoke. They find it easy to “surrender the things of youth” because those things are not their true identity. Possessions, physical attributes, and even our physical bodies are not forever. The beauty of your spirit and your spiritual growth is forever. Let that be your identity.