Aging Well

I reckon it would not come as a surprise to anyone I am interested in aging. Older people should not write themselves off. They definitely have something to give. I have not found information about it front and center and yesterday reinforced that to me big time.

I went to my favourite bookshop on the sunshine coast. The shop has a computer a person can look up that list's books available Australia wide on the topic of choice. Every book I looked up on the topic was not available where I was. When I got home, I looked up another site. It had three of the seven books I was interested in. I needed to have them sent to me if I wanted them.

So I looked on line for articles on the subject. I found a few and have made a folder called “aging,”

There was one where a guy interviews his dad about aging. It grabbed me from point one. The son asked, “what is the key to aging well?” His first key was to stay alive! I had a laugh as I had never thought of it like that, but I guess one really needs to be alive to age.

I did read somewhere that I am older than I was yesterday, and not as old as I will be tomorrow and what I do have is now.

The dad’s second key was to not live with a lot of guilt, shame and regret. For me it is a fact that there is guilt, shame and regret in my life. I know it has been forgiven and dealt with, but I know I am not alone in wishing I had not done certain things or wishing I had done some things and not done them. But for me it is not letting them dominate me. Not stopping at a point of failure. I, like everyone, blow it, but I do get wounds attended to and chalk it up to an experience I do not want to repeat.

To me the only way to make a future that is full of promise a reality, is to deal with something and move on. It may be that a certain predisposition I have remains on the “to do” list but it is important to me I do not try to be perfect before I move on. I know I will remain a “work in progress” as long as “work” is happening.

I remember hearing about a guy that was interested in learning an instrument. He asked a mate about it. The mate asked, “how old will you be in five years if you learn it?” The guy said 35 or whatever it was. Then he was asked, “how old will you be in five years’ time if you don’t learn it?” The guy gave the same age and asked, “how come the same?”

To me if it is a goal, just do it. I tend to break tasks up into easy and hard. I go for the easy ones first. I am so not into setting myself up for a fall. I have been there and done that and few things disincentivize like feeling beaten.

I have looked at the word count and I am near my limit now, so I think I will continue this another time. When I reread what I have written I am inspired by the couple of things listed so far. For sure I am not there yet, but I do know I will die trying.