Tag: older (Page 2 of 2)

Acting your age?

05/23/2016 / Laura

Do you laugh out loud as much as possible?

Do you ever dance with the broom to your favorite song?

Do you pause to admire a cherry 57 Chevy when it rolls by?

Do you occasionally wander into the children’s book section just to revisit old friends who used to take you on adventures?

Do you ever watch Bugs Bunny alone and roar with laughter?

Do you sometimes reach down to feel soft, green grass, and remember what it was like to lay there for hours as a child?

Do you like to try new things, like hang gliding or zip lining?

Do you choose the most colorful hat in the store just because?

Do you buy peanuts at baseball games?

Do you eat ice cream cones at the beach?

Do you still gasp at great fireworks?

Do you put your toes in wet sand and wait for the tide to wash over them?

Do you sign up for classes just to learn something new?

Do you play golf with your pals and giggle when one of you misses the ball?

Do you ever roll down the windows and turn the music way, way up?

Do you still order fries?

Do you love how a swimming pool feels on a hot summer’s day?

Do you take a nap when you feel like it?

Do you kayak, hike, fish, bike, paddle board, roller blade, or anything else just to get outdoors on a beautiful day?

Do you still enjoy flirting?

Do you smuggle candy into a movie theater?

Do you ever draw, paint, or write just for fun?

Do you try to really enjoy every moment of your life?

What age are we? Whatever we feel at the moment.

(Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.)

Rock that wrinkle!

“We turn not older with years, but newer every day.”

Emily Dickinson

Feeling left behind?

02/22/2016 / Laura

There’s a lot of great things about growing older.

But there’s some tough stuff as well, like losing more people every year. People in your family. A spouse. Friends. Co-workers and past acquaintances.

Whether it’s the finality of death or a phone call that tells you someone has a terminal disease.

That just can’t be.

She’s not old enough.

He was just about to retire.

We went to school together.

She’s younger than I am.

How old does that make me??

It’s natural to feel some fear when you get news like this. It’s also natural to take a hard look at yourself, and then feel guilty because it’s supposed to be about them, not you.

Yet it is about you…and me…and how strange it is to age on the outside and yet still feel 25, 35, 45 on the inside.

I had a 93-year old neighbor once who was legally blind but every bit as alive and involved as she had always been. Her smile was a welcome sight every day. Yet she confessed to me that it was getting harder and harder because she had outlived everyone…her friends, her post loves, her anchors. I didn’t get it totally then, but I’m starting to now.

It feels like we’re all in lifeboats bobbing up and down at sea, holding hands, getting through all the storms and high waves together. Then more and more of our fellow life travelers fall in the water, disappearing, and the chain is not as strong as it used to be. Hey now, hang on a minute.

We’re all supposed to get through this together. We’re supposed to make it to the other side together. Don’t leave me!

It’s even hard when famous people die, if we’ve identified with them our whole lives and they’ve become a part of how we experience each day. A singer who helped us escape the rigors of teenage angst. A sports figure that inspired us to work out harder because he or she never gave up. An author whose words pulled us through a life crisis.

Now they are gone, and we are left to fend as best we can. It can make me feel more exposed and vulnerable at times. And yet, I’m guessing what’s really happening is we are left with the essence of who we are…and sometime’s that a good thing. To “meet” ourselves without any filters or escape hatches.

All the people we have known, loved, liked, respected, or even disliked help shape who we are…and now as boomers and beyond, who we have become. But they are just part of the picture.

Depending upon your belief, you may take solace in that you will remain connected with them for eternity, that this is not a final goodbye. (That’s my belief, and in a few cases, I’m ready to really make sure they understand what they meant to me!) Knowing that can help ease the pain, and underscore how tight some bonds can be.

Here’s some nice words from the late poet A.R. Ammons:

In View of the Fact

The people of my time are passing away: my wife is baking for a funeral, a 60-year-old who

died suddenly, when the phone rings, and it’s Ruth we care so much about in intensive care:

it was once weddings that came so thick and fast, and then, first babies, such a hullabaloo:

now, it’s this that and the other and somebody else gone or on the brink: well, we never

thought we would live forever (although we did) and now it looks like we won’t: some of us

are losing a leg to diabetes, some don’t know what they went downstairs for, some know that

a hired watchful person is around, some like to touch the cane tip into something steady,

so nice: we have already lost so many, brushed the loss of ourselves ourselves: our

address books for so long a slow scramble now are palimpsests, scribbles and scratches: our

index cards for Christmases, birthdays, Halloweens drop clean away into sympathies:

at the same time we are getting used to so many leaving, we are hanging on with a grip

to the ones left: we are not giving up on the congestive heart failure or brain tumors, on

the nice old men left in empty houses or on the widows who decide to travel a lot: we

think the sun may shine someday when we’ll drink wine together and think of what used to

be: until we die we will remember every single thing, recall every word, love every

loss: then we will, as we must, leave it to others to love, love that can grow brighter

and deeper till the very end, gaining strength and getting more precious all the way. . . .

Life is precious. Grab it with all the might you have and celebrate your spirit, your soul, and your passion for living. Do it for yourself, and those who have moved on to a higher being. Rock that wrinkle!!!

“Being happy never goes out of style.”

Lilly Pulitzer

Oh my aching….

07/27/2015 / Laura

Enough already!

So you’re over 50. You’ve always been pretty healthy. You walk, exercise, keep in shape. When you see people who don’t seem to follow a healthy lifestyle, you tsk tsk them. Think they’re lazy, or wonder why they’ve given up. Don’t they want to live a long life? Aren’t they concerned about that bulging belly?

Then it starts. One day, you pull a muscle in your back. Okay, no big deal. You take a pill, get a massage, and go easy for a bit. Surely it will heal soon.

But it doesn’t. At least not completely. Isn’t that aggravating. Oh well, it could be worse.

And then it does get worse.

You jam your thumb. Stub your toe. Step off the porch and sprain your ankle. Now you have pain in several parts of your body, and you’re starting to list when you walk. What’s the deal here?

Where did your fit body go? Now you can’t go to the gym because it hurts too much. You can’t swing the golf club because your back is shot. Riding a bike doesn’t go well with your sore ankle. Even your dog is suffering because you can’t walk your usual distance due to your sore toe.

You’ve become one of them…the people you used to mentally chastise. People who are on the couch watching the Tour de France instead of walking on the treadmill. The more you stay away from the gym, the harder it is to get back…or even remember why you were going. And it seems like this happened so fast.

It just doesn’t seem fair that after a lifetime of doing the right thing, you feel sabotaged by your own body. As though you are Gulliver and all your aches and pains have tied you down…and you wake up and can’t move. And what’s the deal with these bruises that seem to pop up if you even slightly brush a wall or lean up against a car? So attractive.

All the lines, the marks, the wrinkles…they suddenly seem to define you. Yet inside, you’re 30. Sort of. Maybe you’re more like a fun-loving 30-year-old who likes to nap. And wears a big hat in the sun. And groans a bit when you get in and out of the car.

Who doesn’t?

It’s not that an ice bag or bandage or heating pad or bottle of Aleve doesn’t help us…thank heavens the opposite is true. We heal, we get back in shape, we get moving. It’s just too important to live as healthy as you can stand, so you can live a long, enjoyable life. That might mean a new knee, acupuncture in the back, foot surgery, or whatever is on the horizon.

Parts wear out. But these days, we can replace a lot of them.

Or reach for the oil can, like the tin woodman. It’s okay.

Maybe some aches and pains are Nature’s way of telling us to slow down and pay attention. To not make leisure time so grueling, and instead of trying to outrun aging, just let it be. Pace ourselves, so we can stay in shape, be healthy, and live as independently as possible.

Because getting older takes some muscle. And it’s our turn to flex it!