Let's Celebrate Age

Age is relative, I guess..if you think about it a lot and don't have anything to keep your mind going outside of your own stagnation, then you're just waiting to die. I am almost 75, widowed and still working. I do high conflict mediation, management and therapy and, while I don't work full-time, I know that I'm really good at what I do while I am doing it,so, to paraphrase Toby Keith, "I'm as good as I once was".

Hi, I'mm 77 years old and when I hear swing, boogie woogie, blues, jazz, etc., I still feel like I was 18 years old. I was a jitterbug then and I would be now if I had a dancing partner. We have to live life to the best we can and enjoy every minute of it. I know I'm trying.

Hello - I know just how you feel - I look at age as an adventure - I have 2 beautiful little grandsons - and I'm having the time of my life - and hope to find someone to share it with - but, if I don't then I'm fine with that also - Here's to going old gracefully and enjoying every minute!!!

Well done you people, at last folks who understand we wast to have our age 'celebrated'. Here in England 50 is supposed to be the new 30, well I've been 30 &40 &50 and now coming up 55 next week and having succefully fought the Big C this year my life is now for ME not what people think I should be but ME, and boy do I plan to enjoy. Keep up the good work Connie, look forward to reading more. Age and experiance is a wonderful thing. Mal Moore

Well I reached the big "60" in March and only wish my life was as rich and fulfilling as these other women. 2 herniated disks in my back and osteo is setting in and I can't find a job that I can tolerate. My husband worked 27yrs at a plant that closed its doors.....then 9yrs at another that closed their doors (all work is going to Mexico and China)....at 57 and the economy the way it is......he had to resort to truck driving. The pay is nothing compared to what he was used to.....we nearly lost our home and everything. What are old people supposed to do? Can't afford vacations anymore......even for a wkend get-a-way! These "golden years" suck!

Interesting thoughts put forth. I enjoyed reading them. I am 72 - have always been an active, involved person in many areas. My husband and the love of my life died 6 years ago. His loss is very hard to deal with but I am trying to re-enter a very different world from the one that we shared. At this stage, I am trying to organize my world. I have a book to finish and many other things to deal with. I am whittling away plus trying to keep up with some social contacts. I am blessed with a large family of which I am now the matriarch. I feel that each day I must get up, look for something beautiful in this very troubled universe and try to do something positive in my small corner! That is how I am trying to handle this stage of my life.

I, too, am tired of being made to feel useless and not good enough if we don't look like the half-starved twenty-something models/actresses in publications and on the screens. What happened to appreciating people for what they are on the inside and the experiences and knowledge they have to share? I am soon turning 52 and guess I am going to have to start searching for a new group of acquaintances who aren't looking for bodily perfection and never-ending youth!

Dear Connie, Wonderful words of wisdom from you, as always! Now that I'm a year past my mid-century mark, and learned that I have beginning signs of bone loss, I feel it's time to tip the balance more and more toward taking care of myself after decades of focusing on others. In the Lifelong Learning program I direct in LA, I see people as old as 90+ enjoying life and trying new things. I hope to contribute to the stereotype-breakers we need to show the world that growing older means growing better!

I spent my 33rd and 34th birthdays on long canoe expeditions (1200 miles total) in the Canadian Subarctic. On my 40th, I whitewater rafted the entire Grand Canyon. I just got back from celebrating my 50th by snorkeling in the Virgin Islands....Part 2 of my 50th begins soon when two friends join me to kayak the upper 100-125 miles of the Mississippi. Can't wait for my 60th! And all the birthdays in-between! It just keeps getting better!

Hello all, In a mere thirty-four days, I will attain the magical age of sixty-five years. The age when people retire and live their lives in relaxation and recreation--or so I thought when I was young. It was when Social Security would provide my income and let me finally enjoy life. None of that is true, of course. I actually was forced to "retire" when I was sixty, due to spinal cord damage that limits my activities. I can no longer drive or do simple things I enjoyed, like climb a ladder to wallpaper or paint a room. Social Security Disability provides my income, which my outgo exceeds. Even so, I find that I am actually able to enjoy life, but quite differently than I had expected. Funny, I don't feel old or put out to pasture, even though I am so limited. I have made a new circle of church friends, now that I can no longer be in the workforce with others. I am the baby of the group! The oldest is 81 and can run circles around most of us. Just before she turned eighty, she was frantically trying to Cool Seal her mobile home roof because she thought people would find it hazardous for an eighty-year-old woman to be on her roof. She didn't quite make the time frame, so she decided she didn't care what the neighbors thought and finished her roof after her eightieth birthday. Some of my friends have had to have parts replaced in their bodies, like heart valves or knees. A couple of the ladies in their late sixties and seventies may have oxygen for their weaker moments or insulin to regulate their sugar, but they don't let those things keep them down. They can't be on the go every day, but they go when they are able. One seventy-four-year-old is the four-foot-ten Energizer bunny of the group. If anyone needs someone to help, she's right there. She tends to all the hospitality needs of our church and winds up doing most of the cleanup by herself. Another seventy-year-old woman is the official transportation person for the group. If anyone needs to go shopping or to doctor appointments, she'll spend her day doing what's needed. The lunch bunch after Sunday services always gathers in her mini-van for a trip to the selected eatery. Whatever the function, our designated driver is there for us. She even responds to emergency calls from us for things like turning off water valves and mopping up messes. None of these women can be considered old. Each has the spirit of a twenty-year-old. If we could look like our souls feel, we wouldn't have a wrinkle showing or a grey hair on our heads. Time is a fact, but age is a state of mind.

Dear Connie, You're not aging, just becoming more precious and cherished. Thank you for your continuing inspiration to me and the "youngsters!" Roxanna, Living in Los Angeles

Well said by all. I am only 71 and am so gratefull that I can still work part time. I love it.

Thanks for the encouragement!! Here I am feeling old at 48--I need to change my attitude and be grateful for all that I can do. I love to exercise, read, and talk to people. I am a bit confused as to what to do with the rest of my life since my kids are nearly grown. (I have been a stay-at-home mom.) I need to focus on all the world has to offer.

As an Asian, I know for certain that all elderly people are always very venerated. The older they become, the more respected they are by those younger than them. To the young ones, age represents, wisdom, courage, perseverence amd contentment.People seek advice from the old not from the young.

Ruth Silnes says: I’m defying the obituaries with gusto, enjoying life at an age when I’m expected to be vegetating in a rocking chair. Now at 90 I’m constantly making new friends of all ages: by giving lectures, joining writer’s groups and visiting writers chat rooms. I’ve learned new things, kept up with the times and enjoy imparting knowledge I have gleaned. I smile a lot {no need for Botox), eat what’s right for me and do easy exercise. I work on walking straight with head high, wear comfortable shoes, and today’s clothes. I keep flexible, go with the flow, and don’t allow little things to upset me. Creativity is my salvation: if things don’t go right I find a way to make them right. I like to be well organized, but if it all gets in a mess I live around it until it can be fixed. I’ve learned to say, “No” and opt-out when I feel overwhelmed. I have plans that can keep me busy for the next twenty-years and will be happy with whatever I’m able to accomplish within the time I’m allowed. I never used to tell my age. I was usually at least fifteen years older than most of my friends. If they found out how old I was, I was ignored or treated differently and often left out. After my book Keeping Ahead of Winter was published I needed to find something different about me to promote my book. I was having lunch with a lady who inveigled me into telling my age. “Oh, then I want to buy your book,” she said. Now, I brag about my age. A forty-nine- year-old newly divorced woman said, “Tomorrow I’m going to be 50 and I thought life would be over for me. I read your book. I learned you were newly married to your second husband when you were fifty, and had that wonderful adventure in 1965 when you crewed a 38-foot powerboat from Illinois to Florida. There’s hope for me!” After seeing my website, hearing about my book, and that I am still active, a young woman in a chat room said, “You’re an inspiration to me. I planned on dying at sixty-nine. You’ve changed my life.” Words like those make my heart swell and puffs up my ego: an added bonus to a long active life.

Last week I had a 73rd birthday. I feel great. Three days a week I exercise at a gym. People tell me how young I look, nice, but the greatest satifaction is I can still do my house work, garden and travel with my husband to far corners of the globe. So many wonderful things in my life. Friends, family, and all the interesting things on Gods earth. All free just reach out and take.

write-on, connie! many cultures, celebrate and acknowledge their mature women and men for simply arriving to their older age. when growing up, i was taught to respect anyone who was older than me - no matter what they had become. i was taught this person was to be respected and honored for living. period. we always stood when an elder entered a room and you gave them your seat. elders were and young children were served first at the dinner table. elders were acknowledged for their physical beauty, as well. i was braiding and grooming my great grandmother's beautiful silver hair when i was four. did you know that in many indigenous cultures medicine women and men were only acknowledged as a healers after their own children were grown? the emphasis of our consumer culture is youth. however, collectively, we have the power to define what "youth" means. "Young" in heart and spirit sounds good to me. true, life can have its toll on our spirits and bodies - if we let it. we lose loved ones, our bodies reach their thresholds...but, are we not still beautiful? even the faintest light at sunset contributes to the beauty of the day.

Hooray for you, Connie. I am 83 and love telling people my age because they seem surprised that anyone so advanced in years should be sitting in a rocking chair, head bowed. I am convinced that I have more creative juice at this age than ever - new ideas, lots of courses to take, adventures happen to keep me alert and with it. I've never blogged, but I still do handwriting analysis, I write, I keep at my Albuquookie venture, I travel and I am most proud of the fact that wet macular degeneration started in the eye that wasn't already afflicted, and though I already had an appointment with the Commission for the Blind, I had a spontaneous remission. I can see. This happens with only one percent of people. So I am grateful for what I see as well as what I do, every single day. I would not go back one day of my life. Well maybe if I could know at 20 what I know at 83. July 29, 2005 Noon

Hi Connie I will be 80 years old in August and have been posting since October 2003. I am very proud to tell people my age and to use some of your words, I am more active, creative, energetic and resoursful since I started blogging. It has enriched my life in many ways, has made me a more interesting person to be with and it has given me a new lease on life. If it weren't for blogging my life would be dull and boring. Perhaps I would have found something else to enrich my life but I doubt it. Hoorah for blogging!! Millie