I start every weekday with my self-improvement hour or maybe I should call it my “fighting-off-the-inevitable” hour. (Others might call it “exercise”.) I have been doing this ever since I stopped running twenty years ago.

But I’m finding it harder to resist the smell of coffee and the awaiting newspaper in the morning just so I can live longer.

Forcing myself to exercise is not the only thing that’s getting harder. Although I can still get up from the sofa easily, it takes me a few steps to get my body lined up correctly. And in museums I find myself looking for a place to sit down sooner than I used to.

I wouldn’t even try my once-easy fifty-mile bike ride, and I regret that and lots of other things I can no longer do.

On the other hand, there are so many things I can do. And that’s what matters.