Keeping a journal

I have been keeping a journal in one form or another since 1949 when I was 13 and in the eighth grade in Seattle, Washington. My first penciled writings were in a little red “Five Year Diary” that came with a lock and key.  Words in the front of the diary read:

Memory is elusive –capture it. The mind is a wonderful machine. It need but be just refreshed and incidents can again be revived in their former clarity. A line each day, whether it be of the weather or of more important substances, will, in time to come, bring back those vague memories, worth remembering, to almost actual reality.

On Jan. 1 my first entry reads: 

Dear Diary,

Last night Doris stayed overnight here and we went on Bill Foster’s paper route at 2 a.m. Was it cold! We got in heck! The roads were so icy we didn’t get to Sunday School. We played in the snow on the toboggan and sled l took John (my three-year-old brother) to Doris’s on the sled and pulled him all the way. When we finally had eaten, Daddy washed my hair and put it up. Was I tired.

#

Jan. 2 Today we stayed in the snow all day even eating lunch outside. We cooked soup and beans over a fire we made in the snow. Outside were Kay and Barbie, Dorothy and Betty, Bill, David and me, Marilyn, Karen and others. Dorothy’s dog got hurt by a car. He was not killed. I saw Don Lewis he has a paper route down by our house, he was sure nice. I like him maybe. Newton St. is slick we have it all pressed down. Today I had more fun than I’ve ever had in the snow – temperature 26.

Selected items from Jan. 3. Today I wore my Brassiere for the first time. Pat did not! Our class gives Miss McDowell a time we are terrible.

And so it goes on…

I have often wondered if I would ever go back and read my journals from the last 70 years. A few weeks ago, I decided to give it a try and it is a daunting task.  Yet those words I quoted above from my red diary are true. I’ve been blown away by things I had forgotten for so long: names of people I no longer remember, and thoughts and feelings that I do, brought to life by a few scribbled words on a page. 

Maybe by spring, I’ll emerge with a whole new look at my life. Whatever the outcome, I know I have hours and hours of bedtime reading scheduled.

By: Libby James

Meditation 101

Starting a meditation practice can be confusing. Our knees will not bend right, our back hurts, we do not follow a guru or specific way of life, our thoughts are roaring loudly the moment we shut our eyes, we do not understand chanting and we don’t know how to breathe deeply. 

We feel we have flunked meditation. Yet, with mindfulness mediation going mainstream, there is an approachable door to inner awareness. If you love to sing, play an instrument, listen to music, practice yoga, dance, garden, run, hike, bike or walk your dog, you can find meditative moments. It is that special space when your busy left-brain goes off line and your creative right brain sparks with being in the moment. By engaging moments of calm, you can find quietness, inner focus, heightened senses, open heart fuzziness, energetic aliveness, spaciousness and a connection to something other than the mighty ego trying so hard to control the past or future. 

Meditative moments are sublime. Thoughts may still creep into your awareness (they always do!), but by putting your overactive brain on pause and opening your heart to hearing and feeling the richness of life, a sweet space opens and a smile lights up your face. You have found one way to meditate!

By Suzie Daggett

By: Suzie Daggett

Even Writers Do Lunch

 

 

Meet the WiseCracking writers who got together to enjoy lunch and brainstorm about new topics related to aging and life as an older adult. 

Left to right: Melisse Anderson, Mike Bradley, Jesse Kerchenfaut, Libby James, Bonnie Shetler (and lunch host), Kirsten Hartman, Suzie Daggett and Cheryl Noble (behind the camera).

Sign up at the bottom of the page to receive an email when a new post is made. These sound bites on life are sure to brighten your day! And now you can put a WiseCracking face behind the words of the profound wisdom.

 

By: Partnership for Age-Friendly Communities

Please Don't Call Me Dear

Once a month I meet three of my friends for breakfast at a restaurant in Old Town where we discuss everything from national affairs to personal matters. We like the restaurant. We like the food. But at least one of us gets noticeably irritated when the young waitresses almost invariably greet us with 'would you like coffee dear?' or words to that effect. Personally I am more amused by my friend's reaction than I am disturbed by the terms of address, but I get her point. I doubt that the well-meaning server addresses her younger customers that way and it does come across as a mite condescending.

I have eaten in many small rural cafes where the long-serving, middle-aged waitress calls everyone 'Dear' or 'Hon' and I have considered it a quaint, even amusing, custom - just like in the movies.  But somehow when a twenty something waitress applies it to me or my seventy something friends it creates an entirely different impression,


By: Bonnie Shetler

Happiness

Happiness

The English document after which the Declaration of Independence is modeled read, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.”  The United States changed it to read “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” So, I guess happiness is pretty important.

Happiness often emerges as the result of something we do for someone else, with the goal of bringing them happiness. Is there such a thing as altruism, the completely selfless act of one who has no personal expectations in regard to the outcome of an act? On the other hand, does the motive of the doer matter if the result is to create happiness for someone else?

Can someone create happiness for another?

Do we ever really know what brings us happiness? Sometimes what we think will make us happy does not. Other times we are surprised by happiness when it sneaks up on us.

Chasing happiness, that state in which all is right with us and with our world, is an iffy enterprise given the imperfect nature of life and of human beings.

Still, we can make lists of things we love—that bring us joy—that make us happy. But we must beware that we can’t depend on others to make us happy. We gotta be our own instigators.

What makes me happy? A deep sleep between sun-dried sheets, making a candlelit meals for friends, a long, frosty, early morning run, a movie that tickles my funny bone, “discovering” a new friend, watching a student “get” a math concept, kneading bread and watching it rise, learning something new, solving a dilemma however small, completing a task I didn’t think I could, hot chocolate when nothing else will do, writing something worthwhile, fooling around with gel pens, knowing that my house is temporarily clean, cross country skiing in deep woods, knowing I have accomplished something in a day, being alone, being with people, getting everything on my to do list out of the way, receiving newsy Christmas cards, being part of a special group of college friends, watching the lives of my children and grandchildren as they evolve, and experiencing life--taking it as it comes. (This is a partial list.)

What makes you happy?

By: Libby James

Maggie Reminds Me

The other day as I watched my older dog, Maggie, stretch, I was reminded of how similar we are! This is particularly true when she slowly stands up from a long nap. First she looks around to orient herself. Then the tentative first few steps are taken. Next comes the long stretch that we all call Downward Dog in yoga. At this point Maggie is ready for the next adventures!

Yes, on some days the above description could be me in the early morning as I get out of bed. I gingerly take my first steps as I check out all my body limbs. And soon I am ready for the adventures of the day.

By: Kirsten Hartman

Advice from Granny Gert

Gertrude Amy Eve Payton

I ran across some advice from my grandmother sent to me many years ago. It struck me that they just might have some relevance for today.

Since you will be teaching, you won’t require too many dresses and clothes. You won’t have time to wear them and fashions soon change…

The state of happiness in this world is to bring your wants down to just requirements.

Don’t buy anything on “hire purchase,” (meaning credit). That is like living a lie to world, having things you can’t afford to pay for. Pare down and don’t owe a penny.

Life these days is not easy. The old Victorian days were slow but sure, heavy going and thrifty. Leave cocktails and smoking alone: two ways for money to vanish.

Granny Gert had four children and was widowed when the oldest was ten. Money was scarce and she often prefaced a purchase with: “Now, I’m a widow with four children…implying that she was owed some kind of a deal!

She was also famous for expressions such as:  “If you're as big as a house, you’ll obey me!” and:

“Home, the place where you grumble the most and are treated the best.”

She lived her whole life in England. In her 70s she boarded a freighter for a six-week trip to visit her daughter (my mother) and family in Seattle, Washington. Her favorite activity while there was to take a bus downtown to the skid row area and see a movie. It cost her 15 cents.

By: Libby James