How To Survive Old Age (Your Own or Someone You Love)

Posts made in March, 2012

Inspiration

Posted by on Mar 22, 2012 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

 

How do you see your life played out? Do you want to run through fields of green or go zip-lining through the canopy in Costa Rica?  Do you want to spend your days lying in bed dreaming of how life should have been?
 
Back when Mary and I began work on this book I found a picture in a magazine which developed into a theme as we planned our journey into writing and has served as an inspiration for our book. That image has stayed with me. 
 
In it evergreen branches are piled all over someone standing with only one hand showing and that hand is downcast. There is an impression of forward motion in this solitary figure as it trudges across a vast fogged in plain. No direction is defined because we don’t know where she is or where she is going. Seemingly alone with her burdens, we sense that she has people waiting for her somewhere that will help her if only she will ask or if she just keeps going. She carries a metal tool of some sort like she will get through, no matter what trials await her.
 
We all have our burdens we are born with, some more than others, some with greater abilities than others. Our style, our constitution, our personality, determines how we will handle any given day with our aging parents and our aging selves.
 
Although she seems to be carrying a heavy burden, yet the evergreens give an image of life happening all around her, coming into and out of her. Multiple shades of green springing forth, carried along. I imagine birds and bees flying in and newborn babies and children laughing. I see human interaction and relationships, caring for others, giving of oneself. Many ways of shedding your burdens along the path. It is not a journey to old age, it is a journey to a full life. A life well lived.
 
How do you see your life changing as you age?  What are the ‘burdens’ you carry?  What will make it better or easier for you?
 
While we don’t have all the answers or even all the questions, we do have poignant, funny stories of how we have learned to cope and what we hope to shed and what we hope to gather as we journey onward.
Posted by Tracey Bowman
Read More

Staying Relevant

Posted by on Mar 4, 2012 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Staying Relevant

A Review of “Brain Trust”—A new book by Garth Sendum

Read this book!  Here you will find detailed instructions on everything from how to “hang ten” on a surf board to winning the lottery–of special interest to many of us wondering how to finance our fabulous old age. 

Has your circle widened in the last few years?  Mine has.  From political cronies to old friends I have been cheered to find still alive and kicking on Facebook, to my long lost cousins who, I discovered with much delight, have a rather wonderful bluegrass band, my end of the pool is packed cheek by jowl with new companions.

It is tempting at any stage of life to retreat into a cocoon of one’s own busy work.  There is so much to do, and so much pressure to stay in touch with all the wonderful new ways we can be connected to our loved ones. 

This new world of connectivity is wonderful for exchanging greetings and ideas, but have you ever wondered how some people always have something interesting, relevant and uplifting to add to the conversation?

I like the chapter about memory.  There is good news on that front, I’m glad to report.  It seems that humans all have total recall, we just choose to forget a lot of irrelevant things, in favor of things that seem more related, more pertinent to our “now.”  I’m off the hook for future mind melts—it just shows how discriminating my mind has become in my wiser years.

This nifty little book will help you increase your relevance with a small investment. With 93 short, action packed chapters, each consisting of a synopsis of a world shaking discovery by world class scientists, this is a fun and easy read.  There is also a brain teaser at the end of each chapter that is relevant to the new research to keep you sharp.

A last word from the master, Mark Twain

“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened.  It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it.”

Read More

A Big Dilemma by Tracey

Posted by on Mar 1, 2012 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

A Big Dilemma by Tracey

It's a big dilemma. I don’t want to die but I don’t want to be old. How can I avoid both?  I’m trying to accept the fact that I can’t avoid either, none of us can.  But I do hope I don’t die before I get old.  Really.  I want to live long and enjoy my old age to the best of my abilities.  I still have hopes and dreams, with much to do before I lay this body down for good.

It doesn’t make much sense, like most things in life.  Just when you think you have it figured out it goes and changes on you.  Just when you think your body is your own; you’ve figured out how to do your hair, your face, your clothes, you are fit and healthy that’s when it happens.  Your first grey hair, or worse, your first grey pubic hair.  Or it is that first time you fall and you don’t bounce back up, it takes FOREVER to recover from your injury.

That is when it really hits you.  “I’m getting old!”  Some rather undesirable thoughts start creeping in. What is going to happen to me?  Who will take care of me?  Do I want to be taken care of?  How can I afford to get old? I can’t even afford to be middle aged and live.  The experts keep talking about having savings to live on for three months or six months, even nine months is advised now!  Then they tell us we have to have enough planned for retirement to maintain our current lifestyle.  How is that going to happen? How am I going to get to enjoy being old when it gets such a bad rap?

What is my plan?  May I please grow old gracefully? Trying not to complain about aches and pains, or about sagging skin and breasts?  I'm going to try to live each day as if it is the best day ever.  As my dad says, “Wake up, get up, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going.”  I want to be surprised by each dawning day.

Seems like a good plan to me.

Read More