Thursday, June 3, 2021

On Being in My Ninth Decade

So here I am at 85, sufficiently functional and mentally competent, surprised at having lived this long. Assessing my condition, I find that I have lost:

  • A degree of mobility and independence

  • Dear friends who preceded me in death

  • Appetite (and weight)

  • Agility (not that I ever had that in abundance, but I could square dance pretty well)

  • Energy

  • Some short-term memory

And I find that I still have:

  • Sufficient energy to get through the days

  • The ability to think, reason and write, and enough short-term memory 

  • Dear friends who are very good to me, and beloved family

  • The resources and assistance to remain in my house with only my cat, Shadow, for company

  • My car, and the ability to drive it safely

  • As active and involved a life as I can handle

I have books to read, sunsets over the foothills to relish, blue sky most days, adequate food, excellent medical care, my computer to work on (a big improvement over typewriters), a caring church community and an abundance of gratitude for my fortunate circumstances. Being 85, after all, beats the alternative, as my father used to say. How blessed I am. 

Submitted by Barbara Fleming
By: Kirsten Hartman

2 comments:

  1. Barbara, you are a shining star in graceful aging. As I have just entered my Ninth Decade (how did it happen so fast?), I want to follow your example. My intention is to live life as full as I possibly can.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Barbara, you are a shining star in graceful aging. As I have just entered my Ninth Decade (how did it happen so fast?), I want to follow your example. My intention is to live life as full as I possibly can.

    ReplyDelete