People that guide you

 My cousin and I were talking about aging today, and I remarked that there are a few women older than me that are guiding lights when it comes to positive aging. These women, partly due to luck and partly due to good decision making, have had high-quality later life chapters. Their lives have not been without sadness and despair at times, but they moved through those periods with grace and good perspective. What did these women do to secure a positive older age?

Each of these women took some control over their aging process. They sought the best possible health care and chose living situations that provided them with their basic needs and positive socialization. They also kept family ties close and remained positive, polite, and kind. I want to do the same with the knowledge that luck plays a role with regard to aging too. 

In life, we are guided by so many people who show us the path to good living in all kinds of ways. Some show us the way directly with clear comments and questions. Others show us the way by their example, and still more by what they've achieved and their stories of achievement. We can look around us for guiding lights in all the places we inhabit in our lives. 

As we look around, we might consider these questions:

• Who has the life I desire?
• How have these people encountered life's joys and struggles?
• What do these people engage in and who do they engage with? 

On the other hand, we may also witness lives we don't desire and people who make choices contrary to what we want to do or where we want to be. These lives are instructive too. 

A good life is up to luck and chance in some ways, but in other ways, it's who and what we look to for guidance and light. Onward.