Why Am I So Much More Happy In My Old Age Poem by Shalom Freedman

Why am I so much more happy in my old age
Than I was as a child a youth a man of middle age?
Why do I seem to know what Happiness is now
In a way I did not then?

It's all so strange
I did not achieve what I wanted to
I am poorer now than I ever was before
In money anyway
I am sicker than I ever was before
I am closer to death than I was before
I certainly lack skills and abilities I had before
Romance and passionate love are gone
I cannot dream to achieve what I once thought to.

And yet I enjoy more the little I can do and have
And feel more deeply the beauty and wonder of life
And appreciate the life I have had
and all God has given
and my still being here
and the love of a few
the family
my having done 'something' however small with my life
Gratitude for so much of what has been and still is
Despite all the failures.