Thursday, March 29, 2018

Will you still love me when I'm 64? (Beatles)

When this song came out (yes, I was alive) I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be 64, much less be loveable at that age.
But time changes all that.  We just celebrated my mom’s 90th and I find myself somewhat in that same mystified position again.

Mom is probably as close to the best-case scenario of what can happen when aging.  She is financially secure and able to live in a very well appointed assisted living situation where all her needs are provided for; she has 2 doting children living within miles of her who provide social needs and companionship; she’s enormously popular with her age group, and at 90 seems to have had almost no mental decline.  Her love of jewelry, make up and shopping has not waivered.

All is not perfect. She can no longer walk on her own; has narcolepsy, neuropathy and some other “n” words and sports several monitors underneath her cute stylish jeans and periodically visits Emergency, but she is high spirited, engaged in life, able to whip through a department store on her walker at amazing speeds  (gives new meaning to “shop 'til you drop”) and spends no time feeling sorry for herself.  (This is the #1 trait I admire.)  While many her age are drooling into a cup, she’s planning her trip to Scandanavia and Russia this summer.

I don’t know if this is my destiny – we can do what we can to create great outcomes.  For me, having a business and helping others seems to be my way of being the best I can be right now, but we are not all equally blessed.  My husband did just about everything right that he could, was a rugged athlete until shortly before he passed, never saw a vegetable he didn’t love, and gave tirelessly of himself helping others.  Yet, at the end he lost his memory.  But he had an amazing life that other people have never forgotten.

That’s all we can hope for.  That we’ve honored our gifts in a big way; that we have loved as passionately as we can and have been grateful for all of it.  I did not know I would end up here when I started writing, but that’s what true direction is I think; being authentically who you are for as long as you’ve been given, however long that is.

PS:  If you're concerned about your aging and want to be sure you find the right direction for you at this point in your life, contact me at mlm@firedupforsuccess.com for a no cost chat.

1 comment:

  1. Nice article about Mom.I am impressed your writing skill.Thanks for sharing here.I truly value your hard-working work for bringing this useful. Feel free to surf read more . Education contain classic tasks like essay, assignment, look into article writing and a large number of the students can't finish their assignment well inside the time.

    ReplyDelete

Let's hear what you think!