MY REALITY OF AGING:
It’s not easy. As usual, I offer the following as my opinion and not a fact. So what I share is based on my observations over these last 3 years.
For most people, and maybe for all people, aging is a process where it becomes apparent to those in this group that they are not the person they were. Not long ago, most were caregivers. They earned a living and/or cared for their family. What matters is that they were or felt productive and with purpose. They were needed—not in need.
As this disappears, and it does, what is left and felt may include anger, sadness, emptiness, and maybe for a few, a sense of relief that their daily battle to survive is over. In any case, we are not who and what we were, and suddenly (or not so suddenly), our role and way of living are no more. I skied, I biked, I hiked, I worked (which I loved), and we traveled. And how wonderful it all was, from what was a “cakewalk” to what was a battle to survive. All of it was a gift, and we flourished.
I am so lucky and surprised that my mind is as clear as it is. I still find writing a one-page paper on a wide variety of subjects fun and challenging. I love Lenette and others suggesting subjects to write about. Maybe I can, and maybe I can’t… So what?
So, the point of this paper is not to be dismissed. Getting old is closing one’s life, the last chapter of an extraordinary book, in fact, one of a kind. When people have lived full and challenging lives, seeing, feeling, and intellectually knowing, they are fully aware that “the fat lady is close to finishing her song.”
The candle still burns; for how long is not in our hands, but I, for one, hope it’s a long-lasting wick.
We are born and live—What comes our way we can’t know—It is our life lived.
Sy
