As I Age

There are some great things about ageing. Probably the chief one is not dying, yet.

I have learned that life slows a bit. Not that you don't keep busy, it just takes longer to do what you have done in the past.
Take house work. Please, do take it.
I used to mop and vacuum my whole house in two hours. I had a 2500 sq.ft. house.
Now it takes me an hour to sweep and mop one floor. I have a 1400 sq.ft. house. Not only does it take me longer to do it, it takes me a lot longer to decide to do it.

And a lot longer to recover from it!

How do you feel about being older? Even if older means you are 20  or 80, how do you feel about it?

T is forTurnstile

                                                                            
Turnstile may be an old term for some, but then we have all ready established that we are talking old, here. Using the aging word most of the time. When I thought of doing this post I thought of turnstile. Have you tried to go through one with a walker or a cane?
They are not easy in the first place and any obstacle you may put in your way, will make it harder.
Turnstiles were to make it easier to enter buildings
I thought, but they were probably invented to help count entries into buildings or arenas. You need to know that, you know. Anyway, we are now at the end of turnstiles. I will go through one and be on my way.                                                                                                                                                      

Q is for Quest

                                                                                     
If ever there were a word that describes aging it would be
quest. You are on a quest from the day you are born. That quest would be to become YOU. You are unique and the only one like you. Whether you are young or old.
This quest takes us from baby to adulthood. And adulthood spans the ages of teens to whenever you die.
It is a wild ride and is best if enjoyed to the fullest.
We can  whine about not being able to do at 60 what we did at  20, or we can do the most we can at whatever age. At 20 you couldn't get into the early bird café specials. You can at  60. At 60 you can't run the mile in the same time you could at 20, but who cares? You don't need to be there that quick.
Go and enjoy a stroll rather than a sprint.                  

O is for Over the Rainbow

I love the song Over the Rainbow. Somewhere where the birds fly.
Are there days when that is all you want to do is fly away? It could be over the rainbow, or heck, just the next county. Just a way for a while.
Aging makes you want to fly back in time, when things were simpler. No doctors to visit, no kids who hound you to move closer, or just to feel needed. It is way easier to deal with "Mom, what's for dinner?" than it is with, " Mom, what we will do with the table that seats twelve now that we have room only for a two seater?"
You just don't want to deal.
When that happens, take out your ipod and program in Judy Garland singing " Over the Rainbow" and join her there.

                                              

M is for Motion

                                                                                     
Motion is necessary all the time, but as we age it gets lots
more important. I just made a lot of English teachers cringe.
Please forgive me, but it is true.
It keeps you from freezing in place. Try sitting in one position for
more than ten minutes, and you will see what I mean.
So, all together now, up, down, up, down. Now, try the other
hand.
That's it for now.

K is for knowledge

                                                                                                                   

Knowledge is an ongoing gathering thing. It includes knowing how to walk, talk and run.
It also includes knowing where to go to find the knowledge. Which school is best for the knowledge you need as you go out into the world. Which person can support you in your thirst for knowledge.

As you age, the knowledge you need is sometimes only found in other people, not books or the internet. How does it feel to be old? No one wants to admit they know this. We don't want to admit how it feels, because we never get there.

Old is someplace we don't admit to being. That is someone else who is old. Not me.

Aging is something we all do. It can be fun. And you take your fun where you find it. You take your knowledge where you can get it, too.

It comes from experience. You learn you are excited that you went under the limbo bar. Never mind that it was only two inches below your eyebrow, and you only had to tip your head to get under it.

Go out and experience something to gain knowledge. Get the knowledge to do the current dance.

Like the guy above, fill your head with knowledge, and then you have an excuse when you forget something.

Fun, Faith and Frivolities

If I was really organized this would read : Faith, Frivolities and Fun. But, Fun, Faith and Frivolities sounds better. Really. Try it.It really does roll off the tongue easier and easier to hear. Not sure why that is so, if it may be because you move from short to long and longer or from single syllables to multiples at the end, but this is how it is here.

Now, wasn't that fun?

If you have fun, you almost have to have faith. Faith that whatever you are doing for fun will turn out well. The guys in the picture have faith that they can do this juggling thing. And even though they might not do it the fun was in the trying. The having faith that nothing bad would happen and they would live to laugh another day.

Frivolities can come in all sorts of ways. I just spent time laughing at the frivolities of getting the picture on this page to where it is. It moved all over for me and we finally came to an agreement to this spot.

As we age, fun, faith and frivolities vary and change. We no longer try to juggle everything in our lives. We learn that we can juggle three things, and then drop one and pick another one to join the two still in the air. When we were younger, we thought that all we did had to be kept in the air at all times. With age wisdom really does come, sometimes.

With that thought, go have fun and frivolities with some faith.

Beauty

Add caption

Aging is beautiful. Some age beautifully. We don't look the same at 50 as we did at 20 and really, who wants to? We earn our wrinkles and our age spots. Too much sun and maybe too many worries, but we stay out of the sun and the worries resolve themselves over time. The wrinkles remind of when we laughed and cried from that laughter. The sun spots or age spots or just spots, came from a good time in the sun or laughing with a toddler when they first went to the ocean and felt the sand wash from under them.

What seems to get more beautiful as we age is our acceptance of what is and is not. We accept that we can no longer do cartwheels. . We no longer spend hours trying to fit into the latest fads of food or clothing. We know what works for us. We also know which people will bring drama and which peace and how to choose which when. We accept people for what they are, where they are.

The beauty of life is experience.

April Fool's!

This year I am again participating in the April A to Z blogging challenge. I decided this year that I would tackle it as Aging by alphabet.
 And since we are starting with A let's start with April Fool's.

You woke up one morning and got ready for work, and there, in the shower drain, were these white strings. Where did they come from? Could it be hair? Surely not.
It should be the dark, dark strands you are used to looking at, now they are white. What gives? Where is my hairdresser's number? What did she do to me? Now how did that happen? Who put bleach on my pillow? It has to be a joke. I am way too young to have this white hair. Surely it is just a few. I can just pluck out the rest.
Um, that's not a good idea. What else can I do?
Shoe polish. That would work for this morning. Um, the wax kind is hard to stay in place. Maybe, I have some liquid kind.
Forget it. Maybe the ones left in won't show.
I know my reaction is foolish. But, really, I am not ready to be old.
I won't be old.

And where did my dark hair go?
It has to be a joke.
That's it. It's April 1st.

April Fool's.