Do you remember the last time you felt energized and motivated to take the stairs two at time? I don’t. I also don’t remember when my knees began to creak and complain. Suddenly all kinds of people I know are having knee surgery, back surgery, MRIs, procedures I can’t spell or pronounce. The only thing we share in common is we’re all baby boomers. It chilled me into waking up. We’re aging. There, I said it. I’m expecting to age but wasn’t that supposed to be twenty years from now? Acceptance of what is is helps but not blind drinking the Kool Aid acceptance. One day you fall and you can’t get up. One day you’re in stilettos and then it’s sensible shoes. One day you read the style section and then you’re reading obituaries. No, I’ll resist a little longer but I confess I’m reading obituaries now like my mother does. We’re both happy to see so many kicking past 100.
When I made the photo quote, I felt optimistic and rah rah but as I thought about that day and the many stairs I climbed, reality reared its head and stuck its tongue out. There was no denying the truth. The urge to hold a handrail tighter. The heaviness in my lungs sighed, take it easy. Take your time and enjoy the view. There’s nothing to prove. So, I’m babying my knees, nurturing the changing body with kindness and an occasional fist shaking at the gods to fuck off.
Are you accepting or fighting aging?
Oh my, yes. This describes what I feel. I actually started reading the obits first thing in the morning at a very early age. Got the habit from my Irish grandmother. “‘Tis a good day when you read the obits and you’re not in them.”
I don’t like aging. I am fighting it.
Thanks for this, Layla.
Love that quote! Fight like a warrior.
I was going along pretty well. I accepted forgetfulness as the product of too much in formation. Aches and pains would surely go away. Now I have decided I am just prematurely aging (yeah, right). My plan was always 100+ years old before I leave the planet…I don’t remember why. Great post, Layla!
Thanks and with the increase in centenarians, your odds are good!
Thanks so much! Are you still blogging?
Layla you are “on the money” my friend……it sometimes seems like it happened overnight….this aging thing…but in reality of course we’ve been inching our way along for a while and didn’t hardly notice. Now we have time to really LOOK at what we see in the mirror and feel in our joints. Still, did we REALLY think we’d be young forever? Maybe…..but this isn’t so bad either – one foot in front of the other – smiling – loving that we’ve come this far – I’m sneaking up to 70 and I can distinctly remember when I was young never thinking I’d get this far! YAY!
Hugs, Pam
Pam, you’re right on about looking and feeling. You’ll make 70 sensational!
You have no idea how much I identify with this! Also a baby boomer, but just lately really not “booming” at all! It is sobering. If I had the energy to shake a fist, I would!!
It’s good to have company in the same boat. And go on, shake, shake shake!
My favorite tshirt has always been “Growing Older but never Up”. But but now that cronehood is upon me I may have to get a new one that says “Back the fuck off, I’m a cranky old broad, and you just made my list”!
Naw, actually, I just got a new hoodie that says “SHEILDMAIDEN” on the front of it. Guess that means when it’s time to go, I’m going down swinging (preferably an axe and then it’s off to Valhalla!). Love you hon!
Love ya back!
Nice to hear from you Layla. I just returned from a chiropractic convention. Allow me to share a thought or two on the topic of caring for our human form. The law of attraction applies here. What we think about we bring about. As spiritual beings we know we don’t age. The body we live through is affected by our expression. We know as well that as we choose out thoughts carefully to keep feeling good we can constantly shift our focus in this endless NOW moment.
One of our presenters spoke of a great grandmother who lived well into her late nineties. Everyone else in her family…husband, children all predeceased her with heart failure and strokes. He was curious because one of these children was his father who’d passed in his fifties; as to why she had lived well for decades longer than the others…His research revealed that she had been seeing a chiropractor on a weekly basis for most of her life.
What’s chiropractic got to do with living long and strong? The simple answer is that a brain-body connection that is clear and free of accumulated physical, chemical and emotional stress ensures a body that will adapt far more efficiently over time.
Maybe you know this already. in which case HIGH FIVE! If you don’t. Its all about the fact your body is guided and regulated by life. This innate intelligence never makes a mistake. Chiropractic adjustment is a way to increase the body’s expression of its innate intelligence…
Hi Bob, great to hear from you. I have a new chiropractor I like. It’s so true about the body/brain connection.