I turned 81 this week. The older I get, the more accepting I have become. It’s not that I’m complacent. Rather it’s about coming to terms with where I am in my life.

I can no longer hike up mountains like I used to. My pace is slower and I have to stop to catch my breath every so often. That’s not just due to my age. About eighteen months ago I had some stents inserted into my arteries. At some point, aging takes its toll on all of us.

In fact, most everything I do these days is at a slower pace than just a couple of years ago. Turns out, that’s a good thing. It gives me more time to reflect and consider my options. And I don’t just mean which trail to take or which flavor to choose at Baskin-Robbins.

I’m learning to take my time making important decisions, like which marketer to hire to promote my memoir, From Camden to Kathmandu. I’ve been in such a rush to sell my memoir and get to the top of the bestseller list. Little did I know how hard that would be.

That haste reminds me of my journey from Europe to India and Nepal which I recounted inmy memoir:

“I was in such a hurry…I was on a fast track through Europe and had not yet figured out how to slow down or what I was really trying to accomplish.”

Now that I’m older and, perhaps, a bit wiser, I’m not jumping at the first shiny object that catches my eye. Rather, I’m contemplating what I really want to attain by promoting my memoir, which is to spread the message that opening yourself up to the universe offers a multitude of ways to enrich your life.

Slowing down at my age has other benefits as well. First and foremost is spending more meaningful time with my loved ones, my partner, Margaret, my daughter, Gioia, and other friends and family.

Beyond that, doing a little gardening, some writing, a little travel. And just being present in the moment. As James Taylor once sang, “Enjoying the passage of time.”

That includes examining how much I feel in tune with the rhythms of the universe. I believe we are all part of that universal energy. Some of us dance along with it. Others resist that raw, natural energy and struggle to raise it to a “more spiritual plane.” And, then there are still others who disengage from our world altogether.

Most of my life I’ve resisted what’s playing on the national stage and worked to transform it, or at least significantly improve it. But now I’m learning how to accept the all-encompassing, erratic atmosphere that is our world today. To move forward, we first have to recognize the way it is.

Bruce Berlin, JD

At 81, Bruce Berlin is still writing, still asking hard questions, and still convinced that how we live on the inside is inseparable from how we show up in the world.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, he is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), and his memoir, From Camden to Kathmandu. (See Books.by/our-time-books.) He is the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at bruceberlin45@gmail.com.