New Life in the Golden Years
As people arrive at their golden years, they start to realize that, instead of feeling old and at the end of life, they should be taking advantage of the abundance of wisdom and experience gathered throughout a long-life. They start questioning their role as an elderly person in the family, with friends, and the community in general.
Grandparents, parents, and children should maintain bonds of connection that flow from generation to generation, giving birth to a spirit of youth within the elderly among the family. The elderly already understand that one should accept life as it comes and have learned how to strive to be above all worries and project such attitudes to grandchildren. The youngest ones receive so many invaluable gifts from grandparents, an example of love that is unconditional, simple warmth without calculations. Dr. Laitman
A balanced society should take advantage of the wealth of knowledge that older people possess and pass it on to the younger generations. An integral education highlights that everybody is equal, no matter the age, that everybody is necessary as part of a balanced society, and that everyone can learn from each other. Full mutual cooperation is essential, if not, chaos and unpleasant forces will manifest and destroy the basic fabric of a healthy civilization.
But, at the threshold of the golden years, people find themselves weakened by an array of ailments due to bad choices by the way they lived their lives. Many of them cannot get rid of a feeling of loneliness in a world that moves faster and faster while they become slower and slower. Their families move farther away from them because their lives take them in that direction, while they may have to go towards the direction of homes to be in the company of other oldies and in the care of professionals, not family. It is at this crossroads that senior citizens should start considering asking questions about the purpose of life. Is it too late to search for the meaning of life when they feel their lives dissipating into the nothingness of old age? It is never too late to find the answers to all those questions! Search for clues in the acquired wisdom and experience of life, but also in the new relationships. At this stage, they can discover new venues of experience in the different environments they live, and in the healthy, invigorating new connections that transcend corporeal life. It is through these connections that people in their golden years will uncover a new dimension to their lives. At this new stage, they should exist with the sole desire to serve in order to bestow love and compassion to friends and family as a means to attain eternity here, in the now. Life through these golden years should consist in exerting these qualities. One feels a genuine fulfillment only when connected to other people, and the connection between them starts to reveal a sincere relationship and mutual bestowal. (Laitman)
It is very common in a society consumed by materialism and a strong desire to live long lives but by looking as they did twenty years ago. To do this they take supplements, go to the gym, do yoga, and try many beauty treatments that promise the fountain of youth. It is important to do things to keep bodies healthy and ready to extend more years to their lives, but the desire to be healthy should not be the only desire that fulfills their hearts. They need to also feel the urge to give love to the people around them, to build a strong desire to bestow love, understanding, and compassion to their community, even if they feel some do not deserve it. It is necessary to learn to forgive and let go of grudges and fill the hole that the bad thought occupied by “love thy neighbor as yourself”.
During these golden years a person may be living in a home or an institution for elderly people. In addition to their families and friends, they will be interacting with caretakers. These are trained personnel in charge of their wellbeing, but they become more than that. They become that family that is not living their lives far away, they are the ones that are caring for their health, giving them a smile when they need it the most, the ones that make sure they stay healthy and content. These professionals have taken an oath to be at the service of elderly people. They are the perfect example of love and bestowal and for that, the older people should be grateful to the Creator for allowing them to be cared by one of these professionals. When these professionals sign a contract, they are committing to care for an elderly with love and dedication. They are helping senior citizens to reach the end of their lives in peace, ready to face their next step.
At the end of an elderly life, people face the completion of the circle of their corporeal existence. They end up living with family from different places that teach them, thru connection, how to be grateful, how to bestow compassion, and how to love.