The Healing Journey

February 15, 2025

Marge loved to send her family members links to stories that she read in the New York Times or heard on NPR. Stories about immigration, about climate change, about inflation, about improving your longevity. Despite her good intentions, they already had all the advice they needed.

Then, there was the email with a link to a story with the headline, “Finding Meaning and Happiness in Old Age.” Her brother Ron read the slug on the email and sighed. Happiness in old age is an elusive thing because old age is generally associated with loss — the loss of family members and friends, the loss of health, the loss of wealth, the loss of memory, you name it. In fact, Ron had lost two good friends within two months.

Shortly afterward, he had his annual physical, and his 35-year-old APRN hit him with a barrage of questions: “Have you fallen?” “No.” “Have you had surgery recently?” “No.” “Are you depressed?” “No” even though the answer was “Yes.”

A few days later, another friend sent him an email about happiness. It was a quote from the late Pope Benedict XVI, who lived to 95 and must have known a thing or two about happiness in old age, not to mention loss.

The Pope said: “To what extent does a life that is totally spent in achieving success, longing for prestige, and seeking commodities — to the point of excluding God from one’s horizon — truly lead to happiness? Can true happiness exist when God is left out of consideration? Experience shows that we are not happy just because our material expectations and needs are satisfied.”

In old age, middle age and young adulthood, it’s never too late or too early to make God the center of your life. Best of all, he will provide the meaning, and he will provide the happiness.
©Joseph Pisani

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