"Moderate intensity aerobic exercise improves mood immediately and those improvements can last up to 12 hours... This goes a long way to show that even moderate aerobic exercise has the potential to mitigate the daily stress that results in your mood being disturbed." ~ Dr. Jeremy Sibold (Source: Inc.com) Good news. If you exercise you feel better. Runner's high. At least if you're a runner. I'm ...
Aging
"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."
— Frank Lloyd Wright
From the birthday-to-birthday yearning of youth to the "I can't believe it's already my 39th birthday" of midlife to the whirling dervish of holidays and birthdays and reunions and anniversaries of older age, aging is our constant companion.
As a child we embrace aging. In middle age we deny aging. And in our senior stretch we, well... I'm not sure yet. Maybe we forget aging? Or maybe we yield and accept and leverage the many merits of aging?
Verdict's still out!
Actually, middle age onward is still a work in progress. This is the time to own aging, to savor aging, to romance each new threshold and each new discovery and each new wrinkle. This is the opportunity to play and provide, create and contribute. This is the time to grapple with my mortality and to find inspiration and strength in the certainty that I will sooner or later shuffle off this mortal coil. This is the time.
"Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength."
—Betty Friedan
"If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest."
— John Glenn
"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
— Samuel Ullman
We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."
— George Bernard Shaw
"We live in a youth-obsessed culture that is constantly trying to tell us that if we are not young, and we’re not glowing, and we’re not hot, that we don’t matter. I refuse to let a system or a culture or a distorted view of reality tell me that I don’t matter. I know that only by owning who and what you are can you start to step into the fullness of life. Every year should be teaching us all something valuable. Whether you get the lesson is really up to you."
— Oprah Winfrey
"There are six myths about old age: 1. That it’s a disease, a disaster. 2. That we are mindless. 3. That we are sexless. 4. That we are useless. 5. That we are powerless. 6. That we are all alike."
— Maggie Kuhn (founder, Gray Panthers movement)
Carpe Midlife & Aging
Click on any of the titles and images below to meander my meditations (and doodles and rants) on aging...
Midlife Impetus
Mid-life crises do not always lead to inappropriate or risky behaviors. For some, it is a time to learn new things, break some bad habits, or broaden their horizons. It can be the impetus to lose weight, start exercising, or finally take those piano lessons you have been talking about doing for years on end. ~ Len Kay (Source: Surviving the Midlife Crisis | Age Smart) Are you curious about a ...
Middling
"Fair to middlin'...," she says, visibly, audibly, olfactorily tired. Like a threshold, I think to myself but say nothing since she looks and sounds unready for clever or even philosophical fat chewing. "How have you been?" I had asked reflexively. "Fine, and you?" That's what I expected if I expected anything at all. But instead, a verbal grimace, "Fair to middlin'." I can't help but prologue her ...
Thinking of Goodbye
"I think we're all holding our breath and thinking of goodbye... hoping it's gonna turn out ok." ~ David Crosby There's so much beauty and sadness and wisdom and music in this clutter of honest, unselfconscious words shared by David Crosby about singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Crosby dated Mitchell in 1967 when he was still performing with the Byrds. The following year he helped line up her ...
Muhammad Ali on Age
"Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are." ~ Muhammad Ali ...
In-Betweenness
"In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times." ~ Homi K. Bhabha While more of a cultural reference than an age reference, Bhabha's quotation offers a provocative invitation. Midlife is another sort of in-betweenness. A liminal period that is abstract and undefinable in so many ways. Maybe all of life is liminal. Maybe in-betweenness is all we ever know... ...