I've read and recommend a book by Ronald Blythe that helps one reflect on passages, and particularly old age. The book is entitled The View in Winter. It's moving study of the perplexities of living to a great old age. Stores are related by a wide range of men and women who have been: miners, villagers, doctors, teachers, craftsmen, soldiers or priests. It includes the widowed and the long-retired.

The voices of these still living 'ancients' are set in the context of what literature, art, religion and medicine over the centuries have said about ageing. The result is an acclaimed and compelling reflection on an inevitable aspect of our human experience.