Lord save us all from old age and broken health and a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.

What frightens most about growing older is rarely the years themselves. It is the possibility that the part of you that keeps making new plans will quietly stop. Bodies wear, and health can go without asking permission, but the harder loss is the day nothing ahead seems worth wanting. That capacity to want is worth tending long before it thins.

Notice what you are still looking forward to, even in small ways. If that list has gone short, add one thing to it this week and give it a date. Wanting is a habit, and it keeps better for being used.