Awwww...the "downhill side." I'm beginning to see more clearly what this is all about. In June of this year, I will be turning 64. This simply amazes me. "The Golden Years," it's been so gracefully called. Many have a negative view on this and tell me those golden years aren't so golden. I would like to shine a light, so that we may have a clearer view than the dark side has.
What could be so great about arriving to the 60th year? As good as those earlier, busy times of my life were, I'm beginning to think that living in the "60's" might have them beat. Sure, I treasure the years of my children growing up, organizing home education for them, over-seeing a home school support group, leading a drama team at our church, and owning/managing/working in a beauty salon, keeping a home (some-what) and a husband, happy. Those are memories I am so grateful for. Some really great memories, some not so great. Every season of life has it's ups and downs. Can you remember your teen years, your courting years, your work place years? I see complaints DAILY on fb about the down side of life. Let's not mourn about our senior years, or any year! They all have purpose.
Now I am freer than ever before to choose how I spend my time. What shall I learn more about or become better at? Or what new activity shall I try. Maybe I will get back to my art. Sketching & painting. For now, I'll put my artistic talent to use in giving the rooms in our house, face lifts. I can sense a world of possibilities...not much different than the former years, just more time to explore them.
My husband nor I are rich, monetarily speaking, and I do feel a bit of arthritis in my left arm, wrist and hand. Glad I'm right handed! =} Maybe I am a little slower than back in the day, yet I still have business responsibilities that take up much of my time, and I am the happiest I've ever been. I really wondered how my husband and I would get along, once our girls were gone. Truthfully, it frightened me. Our girls were our world (still are...to a degree) and I worried if the spark would ignite once again. Would we have to re-discover each other?
As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about. We DID find each other and we're lovin' it! I find it impossible to dwell on what I don't have or can't change. I suppose some people may have been born with this attitude or developed it along the way, but I cannot imagine having reached this state earlier than 60. Becoming an AARP card carrier member of the senior generation was a reality check for me. I simply do not have time to waste on ways in which the glass is half empty. Or three-quarters empty. I must see (and do) the glass as still having a portion left for me to enjoy! I even try to find the good in the bad. I am not preoccupied with how I can make life turn out one way or another. For the most part, it has already turned out. I find myself appreciating things I didn't notice earlier in my life...a stranger's smile (maybe they're smiling because I'm smiling)...the reason's people say what they say (not just the fact they are saying them)...the value of every person created (not just the people in my holy huddle). So much we over-look in the busyness of life.
Observing my children move into their destiny, does not make me want to relive my earlier years. I thank God for those years...they formed even me. But now I have come out on the other side of those extraordinarily rich parts of life, free from the demands that go along with them and free from "what if" and "if only" thinking. Now I find myself feeling so blessed to have had the opportunity of raising two beautiful, inside and out, young ladies that are carving their own paths in society.
Oh, it's not over for me!!! I still have my statement to sign. My heart is to do everything with excellence, not perfection, but with all that I have to offer. Yesterday I saw a toddler in the seat of a cart being pushed by what appeared to be his grandmother, and my eyes could barely keep from staring. That is a future I am so looking forward to.
Until then, you will find me here...in Mary's World
