An aging flower still has beauty. Photo by Theen Moy.
When I decided to study gerontology five years ago, my intent was to combat aging as a formidable foe. After 20-30 hours a week focused on the topic of aging, I'm often grateful to be getting older.
This
Thanksgiving season gives me occasion to explain what I mean. Let me list the blessings of aging:
I am grateful for four
decades plus of experience, which have brought me expertise in a couple of vocations as well as insight from observing myself and many around me.
I am grateful for making the age-related switch from stockpiling information to
synthesizing and analyzing that information judiciously based on experience.
I am still grateful that I am
still learning more things! I just have more pointed reasons for "uploading content" to my brain.
I am grateful for
arthritis that reminds me that I am still alive and that I can still move enough to address the arthritis and enough to improve other body systems: cardiovascular, digestive, neurological.
I am grateful for a
torn piriformis muscle in my right groin because it encourages me to have greater body awareness. I was never very athletic until midlife, and having to manage my limitations actually helped me to exceed them in some ways.
I am thankful that a
slowing metabolism has encouraged me to lift weights and join a gym.
Even though my figure is much changed from my twenties,
I feel more positive about my body because I am spending more time on fitness, trying new activities, and making new friends at the gym.
I am grateful for
hypoglycemia because it encouraged me to learn more about healthy eating.
I am grateful that
aging skin and hair invite me to focus more on character than appearance.
I am grateful that the
aging bodies of people around me encourages me to broaden my definition of physical attraction.
I am grateful for the
losses accrued more rapidly as we age because they invite transcendence and spiritual growth.
I am grateful that
I have more friends of diverse age now than any other time in my life: toddlers, teens, young adults, midlife adults, and late life adults. They all offer me insight about our shared experience as members of the human race.
I am grateful for
mortality because it forces me to set priorities and embrace the people, projects and things that are most valuable to me.
All my best to you during this Thanksgiving season. I am also thankful for social media that allows me to
connect with people all over the English-speaking world so that we can talk about how to meet the challenges of aging so that we can experience the joys.
This post is part of a
Midlife Boulevard blog hop. Please look at some of the posts linked below.