Over the past couple of years, I have been growing in my appreciation of just about everything and everyone in my life. I am living most of the time in an almost sublime state of acceptance and gratitude. Fears about the future have somehow disappeared. My work is more satisfying than at any time I can recall and, by all accounts, is more impactful.

When I began this inquiry about aging almost 30 years ago, my vision was that the end of life should have as much possibility as the beginning—that