My dad, now in his 70s, has discovered the fountain of youth.

The secret: hanging out with young people.

His friends from church keep him energetic and healthy.

I met four of my dad’s boisterous young friends during my recent Christmas vacation at my boyhood home in Houston. They arrived at the house in a gust of exuberance on a chilly Friday evening to play the dominoes game Mexican Train.

The four marched in, dumped the dominoes on the living room table and immediately got down to business.

These people were serious, fierce competitors – but amiable as well. The talk was easy and spirited, about friends and family and church and Christmas fast approaching – and a New Year soon to follow.

The game went on for four hours. They played this 40-something under the table.

The laughter was as plentiful as the cookies. It does your heart good – and probably adds years to your life – just to be around such lively young folks.

Four Christmases ago, it was a different story. My mother had died, and our world had collapsed.

In the years since that dark time, my dad found grace in greater involvement with his church. The regular get-togethers with his friends and their more serious projects not only raise his spirits but give all involved a greater sense of purpose.

One of his favorite programs is called Second Family, in which Dad and some of these young folks visit ailing church members and those afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.

They sit and chat, drink coffee and do chores, providing light-hearted fellowship and a respite for caregivers. Dad loves this group, one of fewer than 100 nationwide honored by President Bush in 2006 with the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

I was thinking about this group’s contagious vitality and enthusiasm in light of the coming New Year, dawning as always with hope and promise. It’s no wonder that the New Year always is depicted by editorial cartoonists as a baby, confronting a world of troubles but also one of bright potential.

This is a time of renewal, when the change of calendars encourages everyone to look at the world with optimism and refreshed energy. If there were no such thing as a New Year, we’d be wise to invent it – simply for the rich fund of inspiration it offers to all who choose to grasp it.

If ever the New Year had a theme, it’s surely the motto of my adopted state, South Carolina: Dum Spiro Spero – “While I breathe I hope.”

Or perhaps Henry James caught the spirit of the New Year in a line from “The Ambassadors”: “Live all you can – it’s a mistake not to.”

Nonsense, says the cynic. The world is in turmoil, the situation dire, the future grim.

But the New Year is the enemy of cynicism. It invites us all to expand our notions of the possible.

So in the spirit of this New Year, here’s to the grand possibilities of the next 12 months.

By the way, my dad’s “young” domino-playing buddies? Not one of them is under the age of 80. My Dad, at 77, is the baby of the group.

Youth is not a number so much as an attitude and an outlook.

Happy youthful New Year!