G : Good Attitudes

I don’t want to sound like a Hallmark card, but to be able to wake up each day with food and shelter, that alone is good. Forget aging and the fact that my butt is becoming a little more familiar with my knees than my tailbone. If you are six feet above ground it’s a good day. So, give me more!

Faith Hill

Thinking back about the laughter that we looked at on our ‘D’ day, for Dyeing Laughing, I caught myself chuckling as I read this with the part about her butt becoming more familiar with her knees than her tailbone. I thought of how many cards and jokes my friend, Connie, and I have shared that relate to the same aspect, except…ahem…another part of the female anatomy. (Another body part that is also becoming more familiar with our knees than we’re always comfortable with.)

But all humor aside, the attitude Faith shows here is pertinent to embracing any age – not just the numbers in the decade that begins with a ‘6’. Whether the first digit in our age begins with a ‘3’, a ‘5’, a ‘6’ or even higher – any day that we wake up and we’re alive is a good day. Whether the ‘girls’ or the butt are perky or droopy doesn’t matter in the least. Food, shelter, and life (and I’ll add the love of family and friends) – that’s the often unappreciated blessings that are important.

I am 90

April is the A to Z Blog Challenge. We’ll be posting to a different letter as we work our way through the alphabet. I’m posting snippets from a Work in Progress, Embracing 60, scheduled for release this June. Thanks for joining us! Come back tomorrow for thoughts on the joys, delights, and sometimes aggravations about reaching milestone birthdays!

A few months back I was re-reading a book. It had been so long since I’d read it, I’d forgotten most of it and it seemed like a new book to me. It’s funny how often through a second or third reading I pick up different things that didn’t catch my attention before. Does that happen to you? Especially if a lot of time has passed. I think we’ve learned different lessons, have new priorities, or are dealing with different issues in our life. Whatever it is, this time around I found a few words about getting older that stood out to me and made me think. From Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, here’s something the character was thinking in the book and it resonated with me.

I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.

When you’re five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties you know how old you are. I’m twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It’s a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I’m – you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you’re not. You’re thirty-five. And then you’re bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it’s decades before you admit it.

 

Thoughts for a new 2017

Choosing to Embrace Life

It’s not complicated to embrace life. You just have to make the choice.

Faith Hill

Some days it seems that life is much easier when we pretend we don’t have choices. When we merely react to situations, not taking conscious thought that we have a choice in how we react, it’s easier to blame our happiness – or lack thereof – on external circumstances.

If good things come to us and life rolls along smoothly – we’re happy.

If appliances break, the car runs out of gas, children misbehave, spouses wander, or jobs threaten our sanity – we’re unhappy.

But I’ve learned that it isn’t so. I’ve met friends that have more misfortune and calamity in their life than I’ve ever wish for. Yet, they remain cheerful and optimistic, always choosing to see the silver lining that exists in every dark cloud.

I have other friends that consistently whine and belly ache about the horrible happenings in their life – never once realizing how blessed they really are.

It’s all a choice.

So, too, is our decision to embrace life. It’s a choice we have, to live life fully with exuberance and joy, despite the minor obstacles and adversity that enter our lives. We can awaken each day and deliberately choose to embrace life in all of its delightful aspects. Live life fully. Approach tasks and chores with energy and vitality. Follow your dreams, yet also live and enjoy each moment in the present. Fill your life with laughter, joy, and good friends. Love and appreciate your family. Love with an open heart and appreciate each day and the life you have.