{"id":494,"date":"2025-09-21T18:41:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/?p=494"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:55:19","slug":"living-long-or-simply-growing-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/living-long-or-simply-growing-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Long or Simply Growing Old"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Or as Spock said, &#8220;Live Long and Prosper&#8221;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@michelleamckenzie\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"623\" src=\"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3080d630-5474-4d66-8bcf-3f4ca1ed358d_900x623.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3080d630-5474-4d66-8bcf-3f4ca1ed358d_900x623.jpg 900w, https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3080d630-5474-4d66-8bcf-3f4ca1ed358d_900x623-600x415.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3080d630-5474-4d66-8bcf-3f4ca1ed358d_900x623-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3080d630-5474-4d66-8bcf-3f4ca1ed358d_900x623-768x532.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought about this as I dozed in my garden the other day. Which do I prefer? Living long sounds much more participatory than growing old, which sounds like a degenerative activity we have no part in or control over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLive long and prosper,\u201d Spock would say when leaving an acquaintance or friend, and for the first time, I gave this some real thinking time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Living long sounds so purposeful and acknowledges our accumulation of knowledge and experience. It\u2019s living and evolving. In this way, we remember that we\u2019re STILL full of curiosity, creativity, purpose, and connection. As an older woman, I can choose vitality even as my body changes and perhaps slows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Living long is about HOW we age. We can live long, live deeply, wisely, and wildly! Thinking about living long is a choice! Growing old is by default. And we definitely want to make that distinction!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, aging often includes losing some momentum at some point, such as physically, and sometimes mentally. It\u2019s coming full circle\u2014when we began as babies without physical control or any ability to communicate. But I believe that we can make this time one of thriving. We\u2019ve learned so much!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"723\" src=\"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photo-1593100126453-19b562a800c1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photo-1593100126453-19b562a800c1.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photo-1593100126453-19b562a800c1-600x402.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photo-1593100126453-19b562a800c1-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photo-1593100126453-19b562a800c1-1024x686.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photo-1593100126453-19b562a800c1-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/michelleamckenzie.substack.com\/p\/true\">Ekaterina Shakharova<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/\">Unsplash<\/a><br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What about the word Prosper? I love this word. It\u2019s not only about having wealth and accumulating things; it\u2019s about the blessings we create in our lives through loving and letting go and staying present. It\u2019s about living with purpose in our souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, I offer you this blessing, \u201cLive Long and Prosper,\u201d my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Or as Spock said, &#8220;Live Long and Prosper&#8221; I thought about this as I dozed in my garden the other day. Which do I prefer? Living long sounds much more participatory than growing old, which sounds like a degenerative activity we have no part in or control over. \u201cLive long and prosper,\u201d Spock would say&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3080d630-5474-4d66-8bcf-3f4ca1ed358d_900x623.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":497,"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions\/497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypurposepath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}