How "beginner's mind" keeps you strong in midlife

Keeping your access to naiveté is hard, but the creativity it brings is powerful.

My daughter, who is nine, and I were hanging her paintings on the walls of a stairwell in our home, and I suggested she go stand by the front door, to view the arrangement as a newly arriving guest would.

Finding my idea acceptable, she hopped over to the entrance and pretended to walk in as if visiting, adding in some make-believe conversation: “Well, …