My Japanese family friend Mary, who will be 97 in March, once said, “It’s like time passes faster as you get older. I’m amazed at how quickly my 60s, 70s, and 80s have flown by.”

My mother, who died at the age of 78, said the following a few months before her death; “I feel sad whenever I remember my age. We are flowing step by step towards the finale, whose end is uncertain. How quickly time has passed.”

My father passed away at the age of 88. While chatting with my father on his last birthday, I asked him; “How are you, Dad? How do you feel?” He summarized his entire life in a few sentences and said; “Until the age of 50, a person doesn’t notice much about their health. But after the age of 50, you see that your year doesn’t match your year. After the age of 60, your month doesn’t match your month. After the age of 70, your week doesn’t match your week. After the age of 80, your day doesn’t match your day. Nowadays, the morning is different, the evening is different. As you get older, you become like a child again.”

When you come across people who live very long, the first question they are asked is usually, “What is the secret of their longevity?” I have read many books on the subject and talked to many people. Almost everyone has a different experience on the subject. Even their recommendations for what they eat and drink are different. Then you realize that everyone lives for the amount of time God has given them. People who live in the same environment and eat the same things, even husbands and wives who live similar lives, live different lengths of time. I have seen people who smoked 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day and remained healthy throughout their lives, and people who never smoked but died of breast cancer. I think it will take scientists a little longer to solve the mystery of life.

Everyone knows that success in life is not directly proportional to longevity. It is not even easy to claim that people who live longer have more productive and fuller lives. You look at important people who left their mark on history, most of them died at an early age. There are so many people who have achieved great success and accomplished great works despite dying at an early age.

As they say..

When you are a child, you have time, energy, but no money.

When you grow up, you have money, energy, but no time because of workload.

When you get old, you have time, money, but no energy.

So, the important thing is to be as happy as possible at every stage of life.

I read a poem. The poet says;

Life is Three Days,

Yesterday is Gone, Tomorrow is Unknown,

So Life is One Day, That is Today.

I think the important thing is to live life to the fullest as long as we can breathe. Developing good friendships. For example, it has been understood that people living in a happy social environment live peacefully and long. How important it is to appreciate every second of life as much as possible.

Mary’s husband Tony, whom I mentioned at the beginning of the article, turned 100 this year. After his daughter passed away at the age of 74 last year, he said the following; Do you know what the worst part of living a long life is, Mr. Osman? You see many of your loved ones, from your family, relatives, friends and neighbors, die before you. As much as the happiness that comes with living a long and healthy life, there are also the pains that come with it.

What a different and important perspective, right?

Let’s end with the lines of the great Turkish thinker Rumi;

“How good it is to migrate from somewhere every day,

How nice it is to land somewhere every day,

How nice it is to flow without getting muddy or freezing,

My dear, it went with yesterday,

All the words belong to yesterday,

Now we need to say new things”

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May God grant everyone a healthy, peaceful life with their loved ones.

by Prof. Dr. Osman OZSOY