Late Breaking News...
A somewhat remarkable thing happened to me nine days ago. I woke up on the morning of April 4 in a brand new decade of my life! While that on its own is not unique - I have crossed into several new decades already - what is new is that this one comes with a leading 7. A whole seventy (70!) years have slid by since my arrival in the world on April 4, 1953.
I don't find this news alarming or disheartening nor wildly spectacular but it is a little bewildering. Seventy years sounds like an awfully long time yet feels like something far less, not a feeling that I can put a number on, as in it only feels like twenty-five, or forty, or..., but a puzzling sum of years that is way less than seventy.
If I spend too much time ruminating about this incongruent relationship between actual and perceived years of life, it turns into an accounting exercise of things accomplished which then very quickly dredges up the unaccomplished, the failures and screw-ups, disappointments and regrets. All of which amounts to a useless waste of time and energy!
I am 70 years old! I've made mistakes along the way, I've missed some opportunities, and I'm sure that I have offended more than a few people (sorry about that, really). My body doesn't work as well nor as long as it used to. It fails me more often than I care to admit, as does my short term memory. If I let all of that get to me, then I become a grumbling old hag and I haven't got time for that wind bag!
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| At the top of Mont Royal, Montreal April 4, 2023 |
I am seventy years old. I am learning to be gentle with the world around me, others and myself. All of which are a work in progress with self-gentleness the most difficult and most neglected. I have a massage therapist and an athletic therapist who together keep me going strong. I have more to celebrate than regret, more to look forward to than moan about. Life is good.
©2023 April Hoeller
