Tag: Aging

Dear old me

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.

Dear old me,

I’m writing this at sixty, and I do not want to be a centenarian. If you are reading this letter, then God obviously had other plans.

Of course, it’s not up to me how long I live, except to the extent that healthy habits prolong my (our) life.

It was hard in our fifties to accept the physical signs of aging. I hope you are comfortable in your skin, no matter how wrinkly it is. 

Remember that time in our forties when we were tutoring at the middle school and a kid said, “Hey, old lady!” We had a good laugh at that. Kent loved that story.

I expect that you are far wiser than your sixty-year old self, so I have only one piece of advice for you. Let other people help you. I know you want to be independent, but you aren’t as strong physically as you once were. Remember how much Cindy loved caring for the elderly?

I am sorry for all the losses you’ve experienced. I can’t know who you will outlive, but at 100, you’ve outlived so many loved ones. You miss them. I don’t even want to think about it.

As I look ahead to my later years, I pray that I will make a difference in the lives of many people. I pray that I will have an inner beauty that doesn’t fade with time. That’s how I imagine you, a gentle and quiet spirit.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

1 Peter 3:4-5

Finally, I want to thank you. It may be weird to thank yourself, but being thought weird never stopped us. Thank you for caring about other people. You are just an ordinary person, but I just know you will be remembered fondly for being kind.

Love, me.

The aches and pains of aging

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

What do you complain about the most?

I am sixty years old, and my body is showing the natural signs of aging. It seems like I complain on a daily basis about one ache or another – my knees, my back, my shoulder. I don’t want to be one of those people who constantly complain about aches and pains and don’t do anything about them. Well, I really don’t want to be one of those people who complains constantly, period.

Here are a few of the ways I address my complaints:

Exercise. Exercise is great for cardiovascular health, but it also strengthens your bones and muscles. I have osteopenia, a condition less severe than osteoporosis. Weight-bearing exercises help preserve my bone density.

Supplements. I take a multivitamin every day, as well as calcium and vitamin D3 supplements for my osteopenia. I consume some dairy every day, but not enough. I live in a northern state, so I don’t get enough vitamin D naturally.

Rest, ice, support. Exercise is important for overall health, but sometimes you have to rest painful joints. Tendinitis is one of those times. I tend to get tendinitis 😉 in my elbows and wrist. Another common complaint of aging is osteoarthritis. We keep ice packs in the freezer. I wear compression sleeves for my knees.

Prevention. Last summer, I fell while trail running at a runners club race. I have fallen many times before and only sustained minor injuries. This time, I fell on my right shoulder, fracturing and dislocating it. Knowing that I’m injury prone and imagining how much worse my fall could have been, the smart thing for me is to do is to stop doing this risky thing.

Acceptance. This is probably the hardest. It’s hard to accept that you can’t do the things you once did. See above. I don’t want to stop running on trails, but I accept that it’s for my own good.

It’s also hard to accept the fact that you can’t fix everything. I consulted a specialist about painful swelling in my ring finger. I injured it years ago, falling in an exercise class. Now I have arthritis and a swollen, ugly knuckle. My hope was that surgery could fix my joint. The doctor said that surgery would not make it better. His advice was to use pain medication. Basically, deal with it.

Aging is not for sissies. It comes with aches and pains. It comes with disappointment at not being able to do what your young body could do. But there are many benefits to staying physically active as long as possible!

I can’t end a post about complaining without an expression of gratitude. I am grateful that I’ve reached this age. I am grateful to be healthy. I am grateful that I can get up and move!

Thoughts on living a very long life

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

My first thought on reading this question was that living a long life is not up to me.

My second thought? What life span qualifies as a very long life? It depends on who you ask. If you asked someone in their 80’s or 90’s, they might say 100. If you asked a child, they might say that I’ve lived a very long life and I’m only 60! 😉

The average life expectancy in the United States is 76. I can look at my parents and grandparents to estimate my own life expectancy, but it would still be just a guess. Statistics say that a woman my age has a remaining life expectancy of 23-25 years. I expected my mother to live longer than she did; she passed at 76.

I will say that people in their 80’s seem much younger to me than they did when I was a kid. An 80 year old leads my Bible study group. Another 80 year old is the treasurer of my running club. But people in their 90’s still seem very old to me.

My final thoughts are that living a very long life is a good thing if the quality of your life is good. Living a very long life is a wonderful thing if you bless other people with your wisdom and kindness. Whatever number of years I have left, that’s the kind of life I want to live

Who’s the old lady?

by Innermost Being, posted in Random 
Who's the old lady in the mirror
with the frizzy, graying hair?
Her appearance is so unexpected,
she's given me quite a scare.

Who's the old lady in the mirror
with my mama's jowls and eyes?
Her face is so much like my own,
it has taken me by surprise!

Who's the old lady in the mirror
with the waddle in her neck?
She's much older than I feel inside.
I think to myself, what the heck!

I smile at the lady in the mirror.
Her smile matches mine to a tee.
I see the gentle spirit in her eyes;
This old lady is beautiful to me.

Time flies when you’re old

by Innermost Being, posted in Random

Last week, I went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription and to get my shingles vaccination. While I waited for my shot, an older woman went up to the counter to get her prescription filled. When she was asked for her date of birth, I heard the year 1948 and immediately did the math – she is fifteen years older than me. That prompted a lot of thoughts about how time speeds up when you’re old.

I turned fifty-seven last month. My brother posted a picture on Facebook of me with our mother on my 50th birthday. It doesn’t feel like it has been seven years even though a lot happened in that time. I quit a job I hated and started a new one, I lost several family members including both parents, and I moved to another state.

The process of aging reminds me of a ball that accelerates as it rolls down hill, though the reason is math and not physics, so the analogy quickly falls apart. When an object moves down hill, its potential energy is converted into kinetic energy – the energy of motion. When we get old, our physical energy decreases and we don’t move our bodies as easily. But we have the potential to convert that lost kinetic energy into spiritual energy. Our bodies may be going downhill but our souls can look upward.

Our perception of age is relative. Children have no concept of how old adults are and when they try to guess, their responses are funny. I will never forget the time a kid in middle school, standing outside the door of the school library where I tutored a student, looked in at me and said, “hey, old lady.” I laugh about being called an old lady back then because I was only about 40 years old.

When I was a child, a year seemed like forever. At ten, a year is 10% of your life. Now, one year is only 1.75% of my life; when I was forty a year was 2.5% of my life. Now a year, even seven years, flies by. This quickening of time reminds me of the importance of the lesser known lines of the Serenity Prayer. Live one day at a time. Enjoy one moment at a time.

Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace

Today I think of myself as an old lady, albeit a “young” old lady. I take good care of myself with diet and exercise but even the best health habits can’t prevent the effects of aging. As I age, I find myself comparing myself to women who are older than me, like the woman at Walgreens. I guess it’s because I’m preparing myself for what’s ahead and what could be ahead for me physically if I don’t continue to take good care of myself.

In fifteen years, in two blinks of an eye, I hope to be like the older lady I see on my morning runs. She is slender and walks at a good pace, moving her arms as if she were running. Until then, I will be…

Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting aging as a pathway to peace