I’ve had a great year of challenges – all of which provided an opportunity to speak openly and invitingly about becoming a senior. It’s just another day added onto many that have come before, but it is a significant birthday. As my cousin said when she turned 65 a few years ago, “Yesterday I was the oldest of the young ones and today I’m the youngest of the old ones!”
Happily, ‘the old ones’ around me aren’t acting all that old. All the little things I challenged myself with this year involved other aging people who are contributing to work and other projects, who are caring for many other people and celebrating this time of life. I was going to challenge everyone to continue challenging themselves – of course the premise is a good one. Keeps a person open-minded, empathetic, young at heart and interested in your own life.
This year I have taken a crochet class and skating lessons. I relearned the discipline of being silent. I invited an eight year-old to issue me a challenge and now I will be dusting off my bike! I spoke with a psychic, tried my hand at Bridge, and became a blood donor. I made myself slow down and not become stuck in my ways.
As my monthly challenges came to an end and I prepared for my birthday, I realized I had, in fact, become stuck in my ways. I have habitually made myself do more and more and more throughout my entire life. I never allow myself to slow down, even when my heart is calling me to. I am suddenly less interested in succeeding and much more interested in doing less! I could summon my courage to be nude in front of an auditorium of art students, or I could maybe do something special for myself with that first CPP cheque. I could have a facial and forgive myself that I didn’t donate it to someone else. I could stare out a window all afternoon to see what might come along, and let myself slip softly into this phase because I’m loving my life in retirement! I think growing older is challenging and welcoming and often very funny.
“You are only in the middle of your story. Who knows how it will end? No one knows if they play in a comedy or a tragedy until the final curtain,” Marina Fiorato wrote in ‘Beatrice and Benedick’. I figure every life is a bit of both, and I’m trying to be comfortable with each act along the way.