You have never been this age before.
Go gently.

Every age you reach, you reach for the first time. Nobody has done your forty-three, or your seventy, before you. There is no practice run.

Which may be why it so often feels as if everyone else knows what they are doing. They do not. They are new at their age too. The parent of a teenager has never been the parent of this teenager. The person who has just retired has never had a week quite like this one.

So if you have been hard on yourself for not having it all worked out, it is worth remembering that you are doing this for the first time.

Some of us believe there is a patience older than all our years, that has watched every one of them and is not tired of us yet. If you cannot be sure of that tonight, you can at least offer yourself a little of the same.

Go gently. You have never been this age before.