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| No going back |
Getting Older and
Loving It
A few days
ago, I called my brother Kevin to wish him a Happy Birthday; I had missed it by
a few days but was in time to give wishes to his son whose birthday is just a
day after his father’s.
My brother
and I laughed about how much we have forgotten and then we laughed about the
getting older.
I told
him that when I had finally missed a period and my doctor tried to give me
hormones to start it up again. I told her that she must be crazy; that I was going
to buy a white pant suit.
My brother
laughed and said something profound and funny; “Not allowing yourself to get old is like not holding the handrail when
you know you need to.”
We laughed
loudly and I told him that one thing was certain; we’d never be too old to
laugh.
I often have
to remind myself that I’m 51. A few
weeks ago when the tropical storm blew through and my home sustained damage, I
was actually wondering when the adults were going to show up to handle things.
I recalled
how mature I was when my daughter was sick, when my mother passed away and when
another daughter was gone too soon. In
those moments of grief, we carry the weight of our life and our age becomes a
gift; a window through space and time enabling us to see our past, present and future.
Age does not always bring wisdom.
When I hear of women who crash their daughter’s proms because they didn’t get
to have one, I wonder where their
mother is.
As a child, I missed lots of things. I was either working or in a Pentecostal church
praying, but I can’t reclaim my youth. What I can do is assist another child
and young person through theirs.
As an almost elder (‘cause let’s face
it, I’m not quite there yet) I am loving the fact that I am young enough to do
all that I do and wise enough to know when to take a nap.
The alternative to growing older is
death, or that woman who had so much plastic surgery that she looks like a
cat.
As you grow
older keep these things in mind:
·
Engage
in activities that you will be able to do for the rest of your life
·
Surround
yourself with people who think, grow and seek to evolve and be like them
·
Read
entire books and learn new languages; these activities fire the brain like nothing else
·
Laugh,
hug, cry, see
·
Get
involved with living
The older you get, the more life you should have
Be you, be well, be----um I forgot, oh yeah WISE
Bertie Berry, PhD.
| WHYYY? |
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