Oliver Sacks’s Life Lessons

A few weeks ago, the great neurologist/writer Oliver Sacks reflected in a New York Times column on the experience of turning 80 years old.

He embraces the new experience of approaching the end of his life.

“I often feel that life is about to begin, only to realize it is almost over.”

He is grateful for all the experiences that he has lived and and enjoys the wisdom he has accumulated.

 “I am grateful that I have experienced many things — some wonderful, some horrible.”

“I begin to feel, not a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective. One has had a long experience of life, not only one’s own life, but others’, too.”

“I have no belief in (or desire for) any post-mortem existence, other than in the memories of friends and the hope that some of my books may still “speak” to people after my death.”

He focuses on the positive and maintains a high level of curiosity and engagement.

“I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together.”

“I am looking forward to being 80.”

For the full New York Times article click here.