A little over a month ago, I drank a Cosmo and enjoyed the optical illusion that “my” ship was going to run into the Baltimore Key Bridge. It didn’t cross my mind that 6 weeks later that bridge would be a total wreck at the bottom of the Baltimore Harbor.
The bridge isn’t that old as far as bridges go. 1977. (We have a Francis Scott Key Bridge in DC it’s from 1923)
Gratitude
Grateful that I can still do origami. That requires functioning eyes, fingers, and some brain cells.
Yesterday I gave myself an assignment: Come up with a plan for life’s last act.
I went to in-person yoga this morning. That took 4 buses and a little walking. So, I had time to think about “old age”. Or specifically “old Peg”. First I have to be able to say:
Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. Not: elderly, mature, aged, older, senior, advanced in years, up in years, getting on, in one’s dotage, long in the tooth, gray, gray-haired, gray-bearded, grizzled, hoary, past one’s prime, not as young as one was, ancient, decrepit, doddering, doddery, not long for this world, ripe, senescent, senile, superannuated, venerable, octogenarian, past it, over the hill, no spring chicken or even longevous. Hello, my name is Peg and I am old.
It shouldn’t be hard to accept that I am old. I see myself in the mirror. I feel my creaky bones, I have pains that never abate. I have to work at keeping my brain on task. I can not drink nearly as much as I once could. Some foods “don’t agree with me” anymore. I have “morning pills” and “night pills”. Hello, my name is Peg and I am old.
I was very very happy at the end of yoga class when two of the “younger” students remarked how hard the class was. When I started with this class it was a too easy class that I took in addition to several harder classes. Now this class is my hard class. Hello, my name is Peg and I am old.
Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. – That is as far as my plan for my last act has gotten today. Working on acceptance. Hello, my name is Peg and I am old.
According to my watch, I only walked a couple of miles today. My watch hasn’t a clue how hard yoga is. So, it is nagging me to get in another mile today. I don’t think so dear watch. I don’t think so.