I noticed while reading your topic on "Aging with Joy" I have grown in the department of love. I am 44 years old, and I noticed that I don't look at love the same way. I took sex out of the equation. I am very ill, and really don't have a sex drive anymore so since that was taken out of the equation I find that I learn to love more from the heart. It's not all about my hormones. Before my heart would pound when I saw this amazing guy, and I thought I was in love. It's funny looking back because now I know what my mom meant by saying "Kelly you are wet behind the ears". I was pondering on that statement all my life, and now 44 years of age I can finally say I know what exactly she meant. I knew nothing back than. I was so gullible in love, and now I am much more mature when it comes to love,and I have learned through all my mistakes to make the intelligent decisions. I don't say I love you to someone just to say it. As I am getting older I learned to differentiate between love and infatuation. With age comes much wisdom, and I am so happy that I have experienced the things that I have experienced in life till this point with love because it made me the strong young woman I am today. Thank you for your wisdom. I am actually doing a show called "The Ripple Effect" and I wanted to ask if I can use some of your wisdom. Of course I would give you the proper credit. My show is something that I started because I am trying to show love in different ways to people, and how we can spread that love to cause a ripple effect that can be heard around the globe. I am also writing a book on this too. This is really good stuff. I enjoyed reading your blog. Thank you.
52 Ways to Show I Love You: Aging with Joy
Years bring shifts in priorities and perspectives which can enrich our loving.
Posted Jun 04, 2017

Delia Ephron, one of my favorite authors, published a touching essay in The New York Times about her discovery of passionate, nurturing and enduring love when she least expected it. When they met, she and Peter were both in their early seventies and had suffered loss and grief. Ms. Ephron had buried her beloved husband of 54 years and also her cherished sister, Nora. Peter, the man with whom she had had three dates when she was 18, had buried his wife.
They both quickly realized the blessings of romantic love at any age. My own love story that began 21 years ago when I was 52 is described in Miracle at Midlife, my memoir about a two-year transatlantic courtship. I have written about both romantic love and midlife love in earlier pieces for Psychology Today. Ms Ephron’s moving essay inspires me to comment further on discovering and especially showing love as we age.
What changes in romantic love when we grow older?
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Source: efes/Pixabay
- We can become willing to do things we could not have imagined we would ever do — to grow, to change, to fall in love again. In Ms. Ephron’s case, it was visiting the Grand Canyon, remarrying. In mine, it was closing a thriving clinical practice, moving far away, and living on a converted barge moored in the center of Paris with an expat American attorney. Love can spur us on to exploring new paths for growing, opening parts of ourselves that we have set aside, that had no place in our former lives.

How does aging change the ways we show love?
- We may take chances we never would have taken. We know that regrets can be more painful than “failures” or “disappointments”. We better recognize our impulsivity and when it is triggered by a desire to avoid a situation or emotion that we do not like or by when we are seduced by a shiny bauble or opportunity destined to bring painful lessons.
- We can differentiate between that impulsivity and those impulses that come from deep within, from our hearts, our very souls. “He takes my breath away” describes an experience of pausing to reflect on the invisible dimension of loving, of stopping time. The consequence is reflection, a new perspective, being able to recognize another human being’s unique resonance to one’s soul.
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Source: ellen26/Pixabay
- We know that what we really have are the present moments. Hopefully, we have learned that “The past is history, the future is mystery, today is a gift, which is why we call it the present”. How sad it would be to miss the joyous moments in the present — and someone with whom we can also share the more painful, fearful ones that may arise — because of an unknown future. Loving beats running away, every time.

Have you noticed changes in the way you experience love as you have aged? Have the expressions or demonstrations of love you receive changed? Are you reassured by those moments in which you have successfully coped with past challenges? Does their memory give you hope that you will be able to do so again, when they occur in the future? Have you come to terms with who you are and what you need and how you react to challenges and opportunities?
Copyright 2017 Roni Beth Tower
Visit me at www.miracleatmidlife.com