Staying Fit
At just about any age, we make up our minds just how happy we want to be. There are the days of childhood, where we whine that we just want to be all grown up, so we can do what we want. When we're in college, we want to graduate so we can work and have money already. When we're working, we dream about the day we can finally retire.
If we sit down and ponder just what it is we like about the very stage of life we're in, it’s not very hard to find some jewel moments.
AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.
I say, let's forget the commercials telling us we have to fight getting older. We can like our lives as they are right now. To that end, I decided to sit down and list the things I like about getting older. With notebook in hand and my pen clicked and ready, the ideas began to flow. Even after writer's cramp set in from furiously scribbling for 15 minutes, I couldn't stop. I wrote until my thoughts were exhausted.
The following are my top ten things to really like about getting older. If you want to know the other 90 or so, gimme a call and we can talk.
1. I've become less emotional and more thoughtful with my decisions. There's good reason for this. Our bodies make less adrenaline, testosterone and estrogen as we age and all of this newfound level headedness feels soooo good. I do not miss the drama-queen, gnashing-teeth, decision-making days of my 20s and 30s. Or 40s. Stupid hormones!
2. I no longer sweat the small stuff. I've been around the block not just once, not just twice, but maybe three and a half times. I know by now that a lot of what I worry about just never rears its ugly head. That alone has reduced my anxiety immeasurably. I’ve become the “What? Me Worry?” hippie chick of the '60s. Minus all of the pot smoking.
3. I can go shopping for what I need in my favorite store: my basement. I’ve spent a lifetime accumulating this and that, and for whatever occasion that calls for a particular gift, chances are, I have something to throw at it, downstairs. Much of it is “vintage,” which is a fancy word for “stuff laying in your basement for more than 20 years.”
