Yes and I thank God for it every day. And to celebrate I am going to go out and start digging my dahlia tubers today. Thank You. Steve, a happy 78, in Baltimore County.

LOL, I don't have problems with my age, either, but I did like when, yesterday, someone was floored when she learned my age because she thought I was only in my 50's! That's having it both ways, at least in the eyes of one person.

Define old age. When does that start?

I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother)

LOL ... my Mom lives in my mirror too ! I tell my children I don't know who that little old gray-haired lady is, because in my head I am forever young :) Now, let me go put on my blue jeans and boots, time for my morning hike.

Peace

Janis I wish my mother had that attitude. All she does is fret over not having enough $$ when she goes into the nursing home (she will be 82 next month and takes NO medicine and has a nice little nest egg.) It saddens me and drives me crazy that she seems to get no enjoyment out of life and feels if she doesn't follow a regimented pattern all will fall apart.

I'm pondering the question asked above about when old age starts. I'm continually taken aback when I see an old movie or look at old pictures at how much older people in their 50's, & 60's looked fifty years ago or so. Was it their clothes? Their attitude? Whatever, folks who clearly were in their fifties could be taken for people much older.

Now can't tell anyone's age. If they look young, I think they're in their twenties & if they look anywhere near my age I assume they're in their fifties.

Excepting physical disabilities, I think getting old is pretty much a state of mind. If you think you're old and start limiting yourself, you will be old. If you continue to have curiosity about the world & to seek new experiences and epople, I don't think you're ever truly old.

I think the biggest surprise about aging has been to find out that when making plans, it dawns on a person how old they'd be when those plans come to fruition. I think of twenty years ago as yesterday, but then gasp when I think of my age twenty years from now. That's when it registers on me how old I am.

My parents were very vibrant clear on up to their seventies and eighties. Fun, pliable thinkers, energetic, adventuresome. God, I hope that's a genetic trait and I happend to get those particular sets of genes! LOL.

Another clue to my chronological age is just that. Finding myself telling people a certain event was "not so long ago" when talking of things happening fifty years ago. But, time is relative, no? It isn't that long ago by some perspectives.

Did people look older for their age in previous eras, and why? Perhaps, and I've heard the discrepancy explained by the better nutrition and health care and the easier life folks have now. I suspect more that it was a social issue instead.

People are not told anymore that an older woman shouldn't wear long hair, or and older woman shouldn't wear a swim suit, or older women should wear wear dark muted outfits, or orthopaedic shoes. Older women are not told that they shouldn't work but now work up to or past retirement. The castes have broken down as far as expectations of propriety.

I met my first grade teacher on a visit to my old schoolhouse before it was razed to make way for low-income apartments. She was nearing retirement and I was shocked to see her looking younger than when she taught me so many decades prior. Her bun had given way to a soft bob. Her gabardine skirt and tailored jacket with the lace hankie in the pocket gave way to a floral pants suit. She had makeup on.

Suzy, I find myself thinking so many times, "well that wasn't that long ago" but then when I do some simple subtraction, I find that the events I'm referring to happened thirty (or more) years ago! Each fall when when I red those lists about "when the class of 20-- was born...." I find myself slipping deeper & deeper into geezerhood.

Me too!

I read some long time ago when I was very young a very simplistic explanation of relativity. Time is relative. I remember when I was a child how slowly time traveled. A day lasted nearly an eternity. The interval between Thanksgiving and Christmas was eternity! LOL.

I think it was more than just perception. A young body has a cranked metabolism, and mine was on steroids. I was skinny as a rail and knew only two speeds, fast forward and zonked. Relative to how fast my neurons were firing, life in the external world was in fact slower. As I approach geezerhood, my body clock has slowed down. Life in the eternal world and its events have sped up relative to my neurons firing. Time is literally faster in a relative sense.

Thank you, Jan.
Good piece to share!

At the shop, Ed, Jimmy and I find ourselves all too often being surprised at how fast this has been happening to so many of us....must be something in the water.....

It's not so much the aches and wrinkles----it's noticing how much our town has changed, with too many strangers driving like they're on the DC Beltway; with no time left for anybody to 'mosey' somewhere.
There are fewer and fewer friends and loved ones left to share a beer or coffee with.
We are now more in the bleachers, instead of on the ball field; people don't really care what our age group has to share with the world.
I laugh; it was like yesterday I thought I knew so much---now I'm lucky if I remember what I went into a room for!
:o)
Life is a treat ---and it's all been good---the losses, the laughs, the tears, the sharing----it's ALL good....and we've had this day.

I found this in one of my "Deep thoughts" notebooks:
Even so late in the season
cutting all the faded blooms away
makes the marigolds so much more alive and vibrant.
There is a lesson:
Even late in life it behooves us
to cull out faded and non-useful beliefs
and attitudes,
it makes us more alive and vibrant.
Never mind that the killing frost may come tomorrow.

Jan - Thanks so much for sharing your friend's email. It was beautiful and really expresses such a positive outlook. As age takes away some of my agility and energy - not to mention the other things - it is easy to sometimes forget all the wonderful blessings and abilities we still have. This one deserves a place on my desk.

Lilo - Your "Deep Thoughts" notebooks need to be brought out frequently! Your last line says it all - regardless of our age.

Thanks to both of you for sharing.

Mary

Nice thoughts Jan!

Let you if I agree when I get there ;) as she ducks and runs really fast

I enjoyed watching my Mom adapt and revel in her older years. She was always ready to take off for FL or the NC mountains, often initiating the trip with one of her children or her sisters. She and my Dad were often "on the road" saying, "We're not sure where we're going or when we'll be back ...we'll phone now and then." LOL I think they were reliving those early years of marriage and travel, but this time without the backseat voices "When will we be there? How much longer?". I'm so glad they enjoyed their "old age".

DH and I enjoy armchair travel wih books and the internet. It seems in the last 15 years or so travel by car or plane is more aggravation to us than pleasure. Or maybe we're just getting old...josh