Do you remember being in grade school and first being introduced to Roman numerals? The ones that stuck with me as an adult are “C” for one hundred and “M” for one thousand. Talking about IOUs, movie characters would promise to pay back the “C note”. Going to the movies meant constant exposure to copyright dates, always in Roman numerals, starting with M. I make it a practice to do my best to translate those capital letters into numbers. What does this mean with respect to age? Do you obsess over the number of years in your age? If you were to express your age in a foreign language it might feel gentler. We become conditioned to what numbers are considered OLD. From the time we are young children we become accustomed to counting the years on our birthday. It starts out exciting, even adding on the “and a half” at the six month mark. Somewhere along the line we start dreading that next number. Let’s start thinking of the years as a warehouse of our life experience, as a yardstick for our growth, and as measurement of lessons learned. High numbers in weight and age are thought to be negative, while IQ and bank balances are very desirable. Perhaps restructuring our perceptions is the first step in developing an appreciation for our given age, whatever it is.