The years are not your gremlins
but merely passing times
so spend them wisely
grow and learn
and feel each day divine
Happy Thanks-Day, everyone!
#feelinggrateful
via Gremlins
Feel Each Day Divine
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Tag Archives: #aging
The “CAN” Polish is Free
“Getting older is inevitable: Aging is optional” – Christine Northrup
I know, I know. It’s hard sometimes to get motivated to eat right and exercise, not only our bodies, but our minds. But since I’m about to scroll down another line to hit the year I was born (lucky cursor), I thought I’d find some inspiration.
Aging is a relative term. Some might feel their life is almost over when they hit the big 30. Others, like me, understand that we knew very little at that time.
As actress Helen Mirren said, “Your 40s are good. Your 50s are great. Your 60s are fab. And 70 is f*@king awesome!”
Want to keep your get-up-and-go getting up and going? Ponder these:
— “For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest.” ~Hasidic saying
— “I believe the second half of one’s life is meant to be better than the first half. The first half is finding out how you do it. And the second half is enjoying it.” ~Frances Lear
— “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” ~Henry David Thoreau
— “I am appalled that the term we use to talk about aging is ‘anti.’ Aging is as natural as a baby’s softness and scent. Aging is human evolution in its pure form.”~ Jamie Lee Curtis
— “The great thing about getting older is that you become more mellow. Things aren’t as black and white, and you become much more tolerant. You can see the good in things much more easily rather than getting enraged as you used to do when you were young.” ~Maeve Binchy
— “We don’t grow older, we grow riper.” ~Pablo Picasso
— “You’re either marvelous or you’re boring, regardless of your age.” – Morrisse
— “Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And Dreams are forever.” – Walt Disney
— “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.” ~Robert Browning
Accept and be loyal to yourself.
And remember, that WON’T and CAN’T are two entirely different kettles.
The CAN polish is free.
photo 1: Royal Free Stock Photos
Painting 2: by Claude Joseph Bail (1862-1921)
Daily Word Prompt: Loyal
Feeling sad about aging? Why? You’ve never been this age before.
We all have our time. I used to be a one-year-old. Not anymore. Now, it’s my granddaughter’s turn to experience that year.
At her birthday party, I had a wonderful conversation with a friend I rarely get to see. First, we talked about her aging mother. Then we talked about our kids. Her’s are 13 and 11. Mine are 23 and 27.
Kristin’s already missing her aging and ill mother. She talks about what will happen when her growing boys leave the nest. Her eyes puddle with tears.
And then I told her what I tell myself when I feel like so much of my life is formed of memories, of cycles of life that have concluded.
“I have been a one-year-old,” I say. “Now it’s my granddaughter’s turn. I have been a two-year-old. Now it’s my grandson’s turn. I have been a mother of young children, fortunate to have watched them grow and thrive. Now, it is my children’s turn to experience parenthood. But, I have never been sixty before. This, too, is a new cycle. And who knows what will happen.”
We all have our time.
Birthday Blues Music?
Before I turn that big corner, I’ll have to look both ways.
Twenty years ago, on the evening before my fortieth birthday, I wrote a little cathartic something for myself. Something about “anything goes,” how I might dye my hair purple, get boobs, a tattoo, spit when I want to. In these past twenty years, I did one of those things. And before you wonder too hard, I’m not a spitter. I’m not good at it and don’t have a hankering to learn now.
So, I’m at the corner. To my left is the past, my right, the future.
Obviously, unless I live to be 121 years old, there is much more to see on my left, sixty years worth.
I was very fortunate to have loving parents and a sister, five and a half years older. I often tell her it’s one of the many things I love about her. She’s been every age before me and can tell me what it’s like.
Am I being overly sensitive?
Yes. But sixty? It’s so hard to believe.
I know when that big day comes a few days from now (not just my birthday but early voting day in Texas), I will settle peacefully into a new decade.
But what will I see? Do? How many more novels live inside of me that beg to be allowed in public?
How many empty canvases can I fill with paint and like the result?
When will I have to stop boxing? (pads and bags, not people)
Mostly, I wonder, what will I learn?
That’s the exciting part.
Sometimes, I want to return to the years when my children were young. The fun we had at parks, reading stories, making up stories, and endless other happy times. I loved watching them grow.
I smile now after typing that last sentence. They are adults and I still love watching them grow. And each of my two children have given me a grandchild. I will watch them grow too, just not for quite as long. It’s okay. Because now it’s my children and grandchildren’s turn to experience that joy.
And that thought makes me smile like the birth of a new baby.
It’s the circle of life. And it’s beautiful.
Carolyn Dennis-Willingham 