ON GETTING OLDER

          Had some time to just muse around today and had some thoughts about getting older. What are the changes that happen in our thinking and attitudes - and never mind the body! That , we know changes and that is just life, but I have found that life begins to mean different things with the values changing. What was important is not so much and other things and values comes into play.
     For example, think about the kids in your life. Those sweet, adorable wonderful, frustrating kids that you raised are now, in turn, raising you! Now you get told that you need your rest, that you shouldn't do too much or so much, take it easy and go see the doctor - as if we needed reminders about that!
     What about the showers and the baths? We used to worry only about shelves for soaps and shampoos, pretty tiles, and now we worry about height of a seat, grab bars all over the place and shower chairs! What is important seems to change.
     And how about the pleasures in life. Remember how vacations used to be crammed full of activities and evening shows? Now we say aaahhhh when we get to sit by the pool, take a lovely nice little walk around the lagoon or the beach walkway or even a sweet little nature hike, not too steep, not too long, just right!
     And even in daily life, the everyday life we all lead. Don't you hate when people ask what do you do all day? I do. I live. That is what I do. It may involve an appointment with a doctor. It may involve a movie or park or some other activity. It may involve a fight with incompetents (sorry, could not resist). It might involve a precious hour wherein I get to sit and read, a favorite activity. It might include the writing of a blog, something I never had time to do during my working life. Something I love. It is even nice just to sit on a bench or by the pool with friends or even alone and think how wonderful it is to live in CV and how we have to make sure to keep it that way.
     And isn't it great to sit and gab with your friends and it is not about work, not about the problems with school, nor the problems with our kids who are rebels or nerds or whatever. It is just good to laugh, to share.
     Best of all are the visits we have with our dividends, the grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. We go to them or they visit us and then how sweet it is - when they go home or we do - back to our schedule and lives, our own beds and homes.
     Aging is a bit cranky at times. I do not understand all the craziness about Viagra and Addlyi (what a crazy name). Sex is not the be all and end all of things and we should know that by now, know that a hug at the right moment, a reassurance that one is still loved and loving, a walk holding hands is just as meaningful, so why the rush to go take more meds to mix with the toxic stuff we are already shoving down our throats?
     Getting older means we have time to laugh at the stupidities of our politicians, their uselessness and the sadness of it all that 20 candidates are now running for President of the United States and there is not a one in the bunch really worth much - and neither is the one we got right now! They lie, they exaggerate, they obfuscate and then do the opposite of what they promised and stated while they were running _ kind of like what we have here in CV, huh? And then we move on.
    It means we laugh at ourselves when we lose the damn keys, when we cannot say the word that we know begins with a certain letter and sounds like.... but cannot get it to come out off our tongue. And then, an hour later or in the middle of the night - voila! there it is. So we laugh - and we worry - and that is life in ACT III. Would not change it if given the choice. Would you?