Aging Gracefully

Along the lines of doing our part and always working towards something, I'm reminded of an older man I once knew.  In fact, the central character in the book I'm writing is based on him.  He said the secret to aging well is to stay active.  He continued to volunteer in a variety of activities and attended community classes to learn new skills well into his 70s and probably beyond (I've lost touch with him).

I've seen family members who raised children then cared for a spouse with cancer.  Once those things were complete - they did nothing but sit in their house.  I suggested they volunteer or join a social group but was told that it wasn't their style.  I really could not conceive of an existence just sitting at home every day.  But that's what they did.  It wasn't too many years before the health started to fail leading to mental decline.  Of course, there is no control group as in a science experiment so who's to know if they had stayed active if it would have helped, but I hypothesize it would have.

What's Really Important

Looking at my goals posted last week makes me feel like there are just too many places where I could focus my energy and I don't have a good method of determining where the right place is.  Should I work on the probable or the practical?  Should I focus on the big dreams or the extravagant dreams?

Sometimes I look at some of the less motivated students that I work with and I wonder how they envision their future.  They've given up on school, they don't work, do they think they are just going to flop on someone's sofa for the rest of their life?  How can they continue day after day without having a purpose in life?

In the end I've concluded the what is less important than just doing something.  I think as long as we are always working toward something then we are doing our part on this earth.

What Are My Goals

So, as I posted last week, if I'm just supposed to get shaken into action towards what I really want - I need to figure out what that is.  The biggest what if that comes to mind is what if what I want now and start working towards isn't what I'm going to want in 18 months?

But, now is all I've got to work with, so what I want:

1.  To get hired as a teacher
2.  To lose weight

3.  To publish a book

If I focus on those things though, then I'm not going to make as much progress cleaning out closets, weeding out possessions and eventually updating my will and catching up on scrapbooking which is what I would feel like I should be doing if I only had 18 months left.  Because what good would it do to work as a teacher for a year at my ideal weight but leave a mess behind when I die.

And these are only my practical wants that I feel like I have some control over.

I'm not even putting on the short list the things like family peace and unity.

Or the impractical wants like going to the Olympics in Rio (as a spectator).

Realizing the Truth

I recently read The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag.  In the story the personified house lets its' caretaker know that she will die within one year.  Wow!  - that piqued my interest in the story.  The novel follows one main character and three supporting characters so this theme wasn't the central theme.  But I did see Peggy, the caretaker, wrestle with how to spend the rest of her days, and feeling like it was futile to care about certain things and carry on with responsibilities and such.

SPOILER ALERT
Towards the end of the novel, Peggy decides to give up her lifetime commitment to caring for the house and go be happy with her boyfriend.  Then the house tells her she isn't going to die as soon as she thought.  Peggy asks the house why it told her she only had a year to live and the house replied, "so she could realize how [she] truly felt and what [she] truly wanted.  Impending death always has a way of clearing the fog."  (p. 270)

What fantastic news!!!  Maybe I'm not going to die on July 12, 2017.  Maybe I just need to feel a sense of urgency so that I will accomplish my goals.