Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable O is for On Aging On Aging Poem by Maya Angelou When you see me sitting quietly, Like a sack left on the shelf, Don’t think I need your chattering. I’m listening to myself. Hold! Stop! Don’t pity me! Hold! Stop your sympathy! Understanding if you got it, Otherwise I’ll do without it! When my bones are stiff and aching, And my feet won’t climb the stair, I will only ask one favor: Don’t bring me no rocking chair. When you see me walking, stumbling, Don’t study and get it wrong. ‘Cause tired don’t mean lazy And every goodbye ain’t gone. I’m the same ..read more

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable N is for Nostalgia I have lived almost 82 years. A lot has happened in my life. And a lot of memories come flooding back with a deep longing to experience them again. Nostalgia, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. Feelings of nostalgia increase with age. Feelings of nostalgia for me are especially acute when I pass by places that I spent with my three grandsons: the playground in the park near Whole Foods, the mechanical rides on the main floor of our only inside mall, the turn-off that ta ..read more

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable M is for Music is Magical I was standing in the middle of an aisle at the Dollar Store. It was the beginning of COVID, and our neighbor told me that the store still had thermometers on the shelves. The song, Silhouettes on the Shade came over the intercom, freezing me in place. My breath quickened. Tears seeped from my eyes. I wasn’t the 78-year-old woman wearing a mask in the midst of a pandemic but a brown-haired teenager in Jersey City swaying to the Doo-Wop tune. I stood transported unaware of other customers until the song ended. It took a whi ..read more

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable L is for Laughter I stumbled across an article from the Mayo Clinic while googling the health benefits of laughter. In the article, Dr. Edward T. Creagan, an oncologist, comments on the health benefits of laugher, which is my “L” word today. Imagine my surprise as a long-time nurse to find a physician promoting laughter, rather than some form of traditional medical or surgical intervention. And the setting is the prestigious Mayo Clinic. Over the years that I have practiced nursing, I confess that I have been critical of the medical profession for ..read more

Aging: the Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable K is for Keep It Moving Twyla Tharp’s book is different from the usual books and articles I’ve read on “successful” aging that focus on scientific studies. Twyla mixes common sense, creative motivation, and lots of interesting anecdotal stories about famous folks, mostly in the arts, such as writers, dancers, painters, music composers, singers, musicians; some still alive, some long dead but all demonstrating a lesson that show us how to be better as we age. What Twyla does best is to show how to circumvent the limitations of aging by abandoning ol ..read more

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable J is for Jump The older woman stood in front of me, hands on her hips, “You know old people can’t jump.”  Frankly, I didn’t. She had taken part in an exercise program I choreographed to the oldie’s songs that included a couple of jumps. I was a graduate nursing student doing a practicum at a church on the south side of Chicago. My target population was the elderly who lived in the neighborhood and came during the weekdays for a hot lunch and social interaction with their peers. Afterwards, this same woman entertained a group of other older wom ..read more

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge: I ..read more

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable I is for Immediacy I return to the book: The Gift of Years by Joan Chittister. She writes about immediacy. Here’s what she says: ‘Act your age’ can be useful advice when you’re 17; it’s a mistake when you’re 77. When we start acting old, however old we are, we’re finished. If we’re really old when we start acting old, it’s even worse. Then, acting our age is a terminal illness. We wear ourselves down to the point that we may be breathing but we are not living. The fact is that there are no particular activities proper to being old in the same way t ..read more

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable H is for Hearing My 20-year-old grandson told me that his friend has the same hearing aids that I have. I was showing him how I can program my hearing aids on my I Phone to provide different sound levels and clarity depending on where I was. I try to be open about my aging challenges when I am with the grandchildren to take the mystique out of aging and soften the negative stereotypes. My grandson didn’t know why his friend wore hearing aids. He just did. Recently, more younger folks suffer hearing loss from loud music venues. There is hearing loss ..read more

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable G is for The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully I was given this book a few years ago by a friend and fellow writer who happens to be my age. Once when the heavy load of aging troubled me, she thoughtfully gifted me this book.  It’s a book to open, scroll down the table of contents, and choose a topic that speaks to you. I have had many a dreary day that, after reading just one of Joan Chittister’s insightful chapters, the sun seemed to warm my skin. I confess the word gracefully in the title feels uncomfortable.  I have been far fr ..read more