AGEING GRACEFULLY

"I AM NOT GOING TO EXPLOIT, FOR

POLITICAL PURPOSES, MY OPPONENT'S

YOUTH AND INEXPERIENCE"

                                                   Ronald Reagan

     One of the side affects of aging is that all the things you had been wanting to do all your life is now out of the question.  Giving up dreams is very hard to do.  When you are young and bull headed it is just a matter of how much you want it and how hard you are willing to work for it.

     A lot of times things happen that just get in the way of what you want to do.  Like having kids or facing health problems.  Or getting so tied up and invested in a job that it precludes doing what is in your heart.

     Now this is a mixed bag.  When it comes down to it, it is not all about you.  But today people think it is.  Things like responsibility, intelligence, faith, hope just seem to be a concept from a bygone era.

      It used to be that a person would find a vocation and expect to stay with it for the rest of his working life.  All the while dreaming and pondering on what he will do when he retires.  So many retirees I have visited with all have the same thing to say.  "Do it while you are able to". 

     How many people have you known that waited for retirement and either lost their health or died?  How many retired and within weeks or months they were dead or debilitated?  How many retirees have you known that went to the rocking chair and aged before your eyes?

     Those who do make it start noticing all their friends dying off and those who's company they enjoyed became bitter and withdrawn.  There is also the ones that become curmudgeons.  Grumpy and opinionated and not able to get along with themselves let alone others.

     If you notice that you are starting to stiffen or having health problems. If you find the discussions that all are about health now, (didn't that drive you crazy when you were young?), it is time to be self aware.  If you did not blow your savings on a new corvette or girl friend, you made it through the middle aged madness?  It is time to start ageing gracefully.

     You have a lifetime of experiences that you can share if you are pleasant enough for others to be around.  Use a little tact, you did not take advice from old fogies when you were young, but when you wanted a little advice from someone you respected it was given freely.  Wait til you are asked.

      When you are drinking coffee at the Liars Club and solving the problems of the world maybe a little more listening and less lecturing will give what knowledge you have a chance to be taken a little more seriously.  A little awareness and thoughtfulness goes a long way.  And maybe someone may actually listen to you.