Minimal News

It's been a bit of a dry spell for the blog. I’ve been trying to make headway in book #3, so I must have used up all my cleverness there.

Quiet Epidemic

Today’s return to my water aerobics BFFs connected in a small way to Tuesday’s exercise class at a neighboring Senior Center. 

Score!

     We had company yesterday for lunch, an agreeable group of people, and it was a fun afternoon.   It’s been a while since I’ve hosted anyone other than immediate family and I’d forgotten the side benefits of entertaining.

          Sure, you do have to get the house clean and hide all traces of the squalor that you usually live in. Shoes actually go in closets, the butter dish finally gets washed, and the newspapers get picked up.

          But all the major parts of the house are clean and tidy all at once. It’s a heady feeling.

          Then, you have entertainment delivered right to your door in the form of nice people with good conversation (if you’re lucky, that is).

          And after several pleasant house during which you all eat delectables you don’t usually buy just for yourself, they go home.

          I now have a clean house, two bottles of wine I didn’t have before, and half a cake. Not a bad afternoon’s take.

Writer's Crush

          There I was a couple of years ago, waiting for our small town’s Cultural Council meeting to get started.

XXXs and OOOs

My husband and I had arrived at an acquaintance's home and there was the usual flurry of hugs and kisses.

The Curious Cases of Judi and Jean

Two more of my friends have just made that seismic shift of moving on from the familiar, something I’ve written about before. A Change for the Better

The Kindness of (Semi) Strangers

     Blanche Dubois was on to something. I can’t say I’ve often relied on others’ kindness, but maybe that’s why I’m so bowled over when a good turn suddenly appears in my path. 

I stumbled downstairs this morning, made a cup of tea, and poured a bowl of Post’s Great Grains cereal (raisins, dates, and pecans!) to fortify myself for my upcoming water aerobics class. Then, bowl in hand, mug by my side, I settled down for a ramble through my favorite blogs. 

          The first one I opened was Arkansas Patti’s The New Sixty ,a writer I know you’ll enjoy if you’re not already a fan. Instantly my tea was forgotten and my cereal destined for mush. There for all to see was an image of my book (find a link to the right of this column) and a generous and very thorough review. 

          When the facilitator in my writing group suggested I try blogging, I had no idea how much I would enjoy it, or how much it would widen my world. This is social media at its best, a place where you can encounter and interact with some remarkable people.

          Thanks, Patti, for your random act of kindness.

         

Spring Break!

     This past weekend saw me on Cape Cod for a two-day get-away at a friend’s summer home with three other members of our writing class. We initially named it the Wild Writers’ Weekend, but one of our more realistic members dubbed it the Madcap Medicare Weekend. 

A Change for the Better?

Boy, my friends are dropping like flies. Well, maybe that’s not the best metaphor for the fact that I’ve just had a second person I know move away for a retirement life elsewhere.

Last night was my monthly book club gathering. Or at least that’s what our small group of six calls it. In reality, we spend more time determining what we’re going to read next than we do discussing the actual book a month later. We all (to the most part – life can get in the way sometimes) faithfully read whatever that month’s choice is, bring our copy of it to that meeting’s living room, and place that copy next to us where it sits while we swill wine and solve the world’s problems. Our record for a sustained literary discussion is about fifteen minutes.

Yet, this gathering has its value. These are not all people I would see in the course of a typical week, and so I look forward to spending an evening with them. We are all of a certain age and share the common bond of having been educators. Also, the majority in the group have known each other since high school, and in some cases, earlier than that.

Last night had an underlying melancholy. This was to be the last time one of us would be there – she and her husband have sold their home of thirty-something years and are moving to a less expensive life in Florida – and the goodbyes were filled with finality.

As I drove home I thought about how most people connect change to the young: growing up, experiencing things for the first time, building families and careers. When we are young, if we are lucky, change is our friend.

The later part of life is regarded by the world as one of stasis; it sees elders as unchanging, sitting on the same couch in the same living room with the same opinions, interests, and lives.

In reality, those sixty and beyond see nothing but change. Incomes shift, our health fluctuates - we have so many adjustments to make. These changes aren’t necessarily all negative ones, but good or bad, the later part of our lives requires more flexibility of attitude and spirit than most people realize.

Writing progress and golf status quo

     There’s spectacularly little to write about around here unless you’ve been waiting breathlessly for a report of my most recent trip to the grocery store.

Moving Forward

As we grow older we often find comfort in consistency – familiar places, old friends, repeated events. 

Maybe it’s because we know by then how much change there is in life, not all of it good. 

One of the aspects I enjoyed about teaching was each fall’s concurrence of the familiar and the new as we returned to our classrooms to start with a fresh (hopefully in the positive sense of the word) group of students. A clean start with training wheels. This was change I could handle.

          So much of our life is spent looking forward to the next milestone. We are programmed for it as we climb on that school bus for the first time. We are always anticipating the next year as second graders, middle schoolers, seniors, college freshmen.

          We get jobs and work for that next promotion. We have families and our children learn to walk, talk, and march off to their own schools. And then in our later years our anticipation is less for ourselves and more for others as we watch the younger generation work toward their own goals. Is that enough?

          Maybe it’s a distinctly American phenomenon, this need to always be moving forward. Just savoring the moment, being “present”, and smelling those roses is all well and good but it can feel a bit flat if that’s the sum total of your endeavors. A sense of purpose, a feeling of direction, is revitalizing.

          It’s all that time spent in a classroom – either in the small chairs or standing at the front – but I think the year should turn at the end of August. That’s the time of new beginnings.

          I was reminded of this when I said goodbye, no – au revoir – to a friend who has sold her home of twenty-something years and is leaving tomorrow for Florida. She and her husband are several years short of retirement age and so will be starting a part-time business once they’re settled. I hope to visit her this winter, but our days of non-stop chatter on the golf course followed by more conversation over a late breakfast have ended. Funny how a chance meeting at a golf lesson can turn into a weekly notation in your calendar.  

          This is your first step onto the school bus, Laurie. I’m excited for you and the new life you are traveling toward, but it’s still bittersweet. Your gain is my loss.