How to Thrive As We Age — This Book is the Travel Guide We Need

Women Rowing North; by Mary Pipher.

Image by skeeze from Pixabay

When I was but a young thing of forty or so, I would laughingly tell my friends and sisters; I’m looking forward to being older. I aspire to be a curmudgeon. We’ll have a dance-around-the bonfire celebration when we all become crones!

It turns out I misjudged the challenge of growing older.

As my hair greyed and my skin sagged, I found people looking at me differently and speaking to me as if I’d lost my reason. More alarming still, I was thinking of myself as less than.

• Less attractive and certainly not as sexually desirable
• Less physically capable
• Less essential as my children successfully navigated adulthood and became parents

A few years have gone by, and I am more forgiving and patient, not only of myself but of others. I am more empathetic now that I’ve lived longer.

The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been. — Madeleine L’Engle

Last week, I was at the doctor’s office for my annual physical.