Aging gracefully...

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"

           ~Robert Browning

                           


     Last night Lanny and I went out in the car around 9:30 to celebrate something I never thought I would celebrate. We went to the Frost Bite, our local ice cream stand, for our favorite ice cream in a chocolate coated waffle cone.  When we had them served through the drive through window, we carefully drove across the street, as always, and parked in the lot by the bank to lick them until every last drip and morsel was in our tummies... We were celebrating the last night of my sixth decade here on this earth.

     Now many may ask, why would you celebrate this? Why not just wait till the next day and celebrate my birthday? The answer is a little hard to admit...

     I am struggling with the idea of turning 60. That has always been the age at which one is officially, undeniably Old. And while I enjoy this period of my life very much, I do not want to be old. I can tell people I am retired, can share that I am a grandmother with anyone, but I do not like to admit that I am indeed old. Never mind that every morning when I get up some joint or another hurts. Never mind the stack of pills by the bathroom sink. Never mind all that white hair that has snuck on my head when I wasn't looking. I am a Baby Boomer, and we are forever young. Right?

     Wrong! No one is forever young! 

     Last night I looked back over the last 10 years, my sixth decade, and did a mental inventory of all the experiences I have had. 10 years ago it was very hard to turn 50, but not because of the actual age. I was in the middle of a devastating divorce and living alone in the house that had once been full of people and activity and even love. My kids had grown and left and then my spouse did too, and I was alone and <WHAM> I turned 50. All that angst covered up any hesitancy about my actual age. However, over that decade I learned to live on my own, to enjoy being single, to function well as an individual and then I found meaning in a fabulous job and best of all, I found love again. Had I known 10 years ago where I would be  now, I would have marched with my head high, happy and eager to get going.

     So, we celebrated all that I had achieved in the last decade and talked a lot about the coming decade. Retirement has brought on new possibilities for creative endeavors and traveling, and thus far anyway, we are both healthy and raring to go. We have plans made for trips, and we are both engaging in creative pursuits that had been shelved for lack of time back when we were working.  We have each other's company and we are discovering that we really, really enjoy one another.

     With all of that going for me, I guess we better celebrate the beginning of my seventh decade today... And guess what? We are!!