I didn't just wake up one morning and surprise myself by being 70+ years old! Neither did you.
What really happened is I got to this old age by living, consciously or not, one day, one night, at a time, day after day, night after night, 365 of them every year for 70 + years. And I suspect the same thing happened to you too.
We all know that "old age is a gift", "better than the alternative", "not for sissy's", "is compulsory"...BUT for those of us experiencing 70+ years, there's a lot more to it than a catchy cliche or platitude.
First off, we need to know what to call ourselves. Yesterday I was middle-aged or in the second-chapter of life. It didn't seem so bad. In fat it was great. I finally felt like I had a few answers to life! I felt accomplished and my body was looking mature yet agile and fit. It was the middle, not too young, not old, but just right! Nothing was broken yet. Nothing hurt.
And now I'm not ure if I'm a "senior citizen", just a "senior", an "elder", one of "the older generation", "the elderly", a "retiree", a "silver sneaker", just plain "aged"...? And who gets to decide anyway? I seem to catch myself more often these days describing someone with while hair as "an older gentleman" or "an older woman", when in reality they are probably my age or younger!
So! I came to grips, as best I can at this moment, with my age and where, because of it, I now fit in the world around me. I have decided, because I am 70+, I am an old woman. that's OK. In fact, it's good! I'm learning to say it out loud, to tell it like it is. But I also decided that if I'm going to really embrace this station in life I am going to do it wholeheartedly and with vigor. I am NOT going to be merely old. Instead, I am going to be VIBRANTLY OLD.
And I am going to try to get you to come along with me. Let's be vibrantly old together. We have a lot in common and a lot to share. You tell me how you live vibrantly with hearing aids, knee replacements and a "fixed income" perhaps, and I'll tell you how I do it!
Let's have some fun...being old, being vibrantly old!
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