Tuesday, March 3

Author: admin

17Mar By adminNo Comments
Blog

When old age hits you can either fall down or hit back

My head is not in the sand; I recognize the steady downward slide of the dumbbell weight and fewer number of reps during my occasional visits to the condo’s health club.But I refuse to classify locker room vanity as a measure of who I am.  Scrawny pectoral muscles are not indicative of a protracted slide into dotage.To the contrary, by recognizing the changes as normal variants rather than measurements of loss, accepting the aging process can be the catalyst for living a life more fulfilling and joyous than when you were in your prime.I stopped struggling to hold on to the traditional approach for determining self-esteem.  In its place, I surrendered.  I realized that giving in to the pressures of maintaining a lifestyle that no longer came easy to me kept m...
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15Mar By adminNo Comments
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When the fledglings leave the nest

Not too long ago, when I was asked if I had any children, I answered, “Yes, I have two, a boy and a girl.”But that’s not true now.  I no longer have kids.It’s been that way for some time now, considering both my son and my daughter are closing in on fifty.  But it took a regretfully derisive laugh at someone else’s expense to bring that realization home.I was attending a meeting with a colleague, a man in his eighties, when the conversation strayed to the troubles he was having with his son.  I was taken aback because the problems he described – asking for money, anger issues, irresponsible behavior – suggested he was the father of an adolescent, which was surprising considering his advanced age.“What does your son do,” I asked?“He’s a psychiatrist,”...
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11Mar By adminNo Comments
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Dad and Mom turned 121 and 119 this week. We had a good talk, long overdue

Odd how I see you both so clearly, composites of the few photographs stored away in the carton that has moved with me for fifty years, occasionally opened, a provocateur of tears that continue silently as the worn cardboard sides are interlaced and you are shut away once again.There is a link missing from the code of memory that stretches from your demise to this day of the lighted candle and quiet incantation. I remember the day you died… and astonishingly, nothing more.The memorial at the temple, the burial at the section of the cemetery purchased with four graves, your eldest son already there, the plot in the corner waiting for me… where are those recollections, so vividly etched in the memories of all good sons.  And lost to me.The Buddha is the guide who brings ...
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6Mar By adminNo Comments
Reviews

A knife that is easy to use

Difficulties in gripping cutlery is one of those signs of aging that we struggle with just about every day.  Thankfully, the knives that are designed with the grip handles solve the problem effortlessly.There are many versions of the concept and just about all of them work well.  Cutting a slice of rye bread with ease was the test for me and I passed it with flying colors.The knives are like the saws used to cut a piece of wood, a fluid motion that doesn’t involve bending the wrist (where the arthritis lurks). Any number of models can be found on-line with varying shapes and prices.
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3Mar By adminNo Comments
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Bacon and eggs as a simile for commitment: the chicken is involved; the pig is committed

“I will end hunger on this planet by the end of the year.  That is my solemn commitment.”I watched the speaker, a well dressed man in his late twenties, emote with passion and conviction.  It was the final hour of a three day workshop described by the promotional flyer as a new level of mastery in creating a future that fulfills what matters most to you.  Clearly, I thought to myself, he had taken the blurb literally. But still, he was earnest and meant well.  That counted for something, didn’t it?After the ovation died down, next to speak was an equally stylish young woman who in a tremulous but determined voice, promised “I am going to make poverty disappear and eliminate homelessness in our country.”Plainly, she meant what she said, and the audience clap...
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28Feb By adminNo Comments
Blog

Do not hold back the tears

“There is sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.”–Washington IrvingLearning to gently reveal who we are at the core of our identity is the path to opening ourselves up to love and intimacy in our relationships. Yet it is so difficult to do!Typically we hide behind a protective shield, preventing others from fully seeing us.  We are wary of exposing our feelings.  We do not want others to see who we really are because we are afraid they may judge us harshly.  Being vulnerable can be frightening, especially if we have a childhood history of being unappreciated.  We withhold, omitting w...
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24Feb By adminNo Comments
Reviews

“Saving the Birds” is considerably more than a coffee table book.

Photographer Owen Deutsch began to photograph birds solely because of their beauty and for his own pleasure, but quickly realized that the world’s bird populations were decreasing at an alarming rate. With many species becoming extinct and countless others threatened with extinction, he felt the urgency to protect them in what became clear to him had become an increasingly dangerous world, not only for birds but other animals as well.Birds play a critical role in our ecosystems and also bring us an enormous amount of pleasure as we watch them in flight and observe their elusive, sometimes mind boggling beauty. According to BirdLife International, 680+ species are considered endangered today, among them some of the most exquisitely beautiful and resourceful creatures known to man....
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21Feb By adminNo Comments
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Senior citizen is not a synonym for old person

You’ve heard the saying about aging athletes – he’s lost a step but he more than makes up for it with experience. It’s true in life as well. At about the time the first Social Security check arrives most of us have recognized the transition from the person we used to be to the person we have become.I’m not talking about the wrinkles.  Senior citizen is not a synonym for old person!  Being old is a function of age; being senior is a subtext of attitude.  It depends on how you look at the term; seniors in high school or college for example, are student leaders, the respected upperclassmen called upon to pass on their experience to the younger undergraduates.It behooves us to ignore society’s perception of “old people” as obsolete and irrelevant. You do not lose the be...
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20Feb By adminNo Comments
Blog

Old gray mare makes strong stretch run

I admit to being creaky and making funny noises before I get warmed up but I fiercely dispute the societal assumption that Senior Citizens are like used cars ready for the junk heap.An odometer does not measure experience, wisdom and perspective.As the venerable lexicographer Peter Roget tells us, being a ‘senior’ is not solely synonymous with being older.  Borrowing from his lexicon I suggest a new term to replace Senior Citizen.  How about Chief or Superior or Leading Citizen?Being retired does not have to morph into one long nap. Slowing down does not equate to becoming ineffective and irrelevant.  To the contrary, my octogenarian’s eyesight is an Optometrist’s nightmare but I see things infinitely more clearly now.  I have acquired the ability to look i...
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