Joe coined a word for those aging souls who, like us, have their aches, pains, “senior moments,” etc. He calls us Feebles. I like it; it makes me grin. :o) Ya know, in spite of the problems that come with growing old, it just strikes me, from time to time, how absolutely precious this experience is. So many people do not get to live long enough to have this experience. My mom and brother did not. I know a good many who did not. Because notice I did not say “growing older”....everyone who’s born does that. I said “growing old.” To my mind, :growing old” starts to happen once your middle age-ness is definitely DONE, and you just come to the awareness that you have begun a decline....albeit hopefully a rather slow one.... and realize your own mortality, perhaps looking it in the face for the first time.
When I say that my middle age is done, I am not saying it gloomily at all! It’s just realistic. I’ll be sixty next year, and I have no desire to live to be 120! I had my last period eight years ago, and our kids have been adults for quite some time. We are both looking forward to retiring in a few years, and making preparations for it. For example, we recently paid off all of our credit card debt. It wasn’t a lot, compared to when we were younger, but these are monthly bills we DO NOT MISS! Because we have very few monthly bills now, we can actually afford to put some money into savings for the first time ever…and still have a life!
We do have a child at home, of course, and that’s “our little brown boy,” Guinness. It is hard to believe he’s six years old now! He is a middle-aged dog, and will be growing old in a few years. He has slowed down some, but he can still just about yank Joe across the yard occasionally! He is such a sweet, loving, gentle doggy though. He is my cuddle bear, but he is also the playful friend who gets me up, running around the house a few times each day. :o) And Joe takes him for several walks every day, no matter what the weather. When it’s warmer and we have more daylight hours, Guinness gets more walks! He is good for us.
I brought this up because this is our birthday month! My head boss, our Director of Child Nutrition, stopped by work to wish me a happy birthday on Wednesday. “Well Linda, how does it feel being forty?” he asked with a big smile. “Well, I’m not forty,” I said, “But it feels pretty good being fifty-nine!”
And aside from my “degenerative disk disease,” which is a term that covers my stenosis and sciatica, it DOES feel good! I don’t have anything else wrong with me! And lots of people do, so I figure I’m pretty fortunate.
The problems I do have have had some positive effects on my life. And on Joe’s! Joe was never good at taking physical care of anyone. It’s kinduv a guy thing; women ARE more conditioned to think about the physical needs of others than men are. But now he gives me two rubs almost every evening....it was my acupuncturist who got us to incorporate this. After my shower, he rubs my back. And before bed, he rubs Vicks (a GREAT topical analgesic!) on my buttock and hip and leg. He even THINKS OF IT ON HIS OWN NOW!!!!! This has been good for me in more than just the physical way. For years I thought myself rather low on Joe’s totem pole of priorities, because his behavior showed me that I was. He always denied that this was true. And I believed that he loved me, like he said he did. I just knew that he didn’t have the sense to know how to show it!! And that didn’t always do me very much good! ;o) Now he knows how to show it.
It has been a very good weekend here! I hope you all are having a great weekend too!
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