On A Summer Day

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.” – John Lubbock

Live Fully

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman

Forget Yourself

“Develop interest in life as you see it: in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich simply throbbing with treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.” – Henry Miller

Make Your Heart Sing

“We should do something that will make your heart dance once a day. If you can’t do that because you’re too depressed, then do something that will make somebody else’s heart dance.” – Yoko Ono

Achieve Your Ambitions

“Write, paint, sculpt, learn the piano, take up dancing, whether it’s the tango or line-dancing, start a college course, fall in love all over again – the possibilities are limitless for you to achieve your private ambitions.” – Joan Collins

Think Noisy And Colorfully

“Look, I don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive.” – Mel Brooks

Are You Lonely?

People with age esteem know it is important to have friends from diverse generations. As we get older, friends of our own generation and older may no longer be present to visit and chat. It is important to have younger friends as well.

This was again brought to my attention when a friend sent me the following story from an English newspaper.

“An elderly couple called 999 because they were lonely and officers responded by going round for a cup of tea.

Two police constables from Greater Manchester Police were sent to the home of Fred Thomson and his 95-year-old wife after she called the emergency services suggesting her husband was having difficulties.

The police constable said he and a colleague arrived at the house believing the husband may have had a fall but found “the couple did not need medical attention and in fact the call had been made out of desperation”.

The couple offered the officers a cup of tea. They were desperate for conversation and the presence of others.”

Remain in contact with your friends and call on them when you want company. Invite them over for a cup of coffee or tea. I have several older friends who do this regularly, and I am always delighted when I am able to spend time with them. I also invite friends of multiple generations to my home. I treasure their friendships.

Are you lonely? Then either get out of the house and go where you will see others or phone a friend to come visit. Chances are others are lonely, too. Share your age esteem.

Bonnie Fatio

Positive Decisions

This morning I had my visit to my cardiologist for a sonar gram and stress test. I always enjoy visits with him. However, we are on the opposite sides of Lake Geneva during the summer and it is an hour and a half dive through heat and traffic. So I decided to turn my trip into an excursion.

Was it shorter? Not by much. It was, however, fun! My husband dropped me off at the pier where the lake steamers dock. I crossed in the crisp morning air with commuters on their way to work on the opposite shore. Then I hiked up the hill to the train station where the cog rail train would whisk me up the Jura Mountainside to the clinic. I felt wonderfully relaxed and refreshed when I arrived.

After seeing my doctor I made another decision. There is only one train each hour. I could race to catch the one that would pass within the next few minutes or I could wait for the next one. I chose to enjoy the moment and wait for the next train.

I decided to stay in the now and enjoy the moment. So here I am sitting on the terrace of the clinic completely tuned into the world around me. The view peaking out of the warm haze is spectacular. The mountains are barely visible. The world is quiet up here except for the harmonious cowbells ringing on the grazing cows. (Yes, there really are cows in Swiss pastures, and they do wear bells.)

These have been good decisions. Instead of driving home through the heat and traffic I will again board the train and boat and arrive home refreshed.

A key to age esteem is to make decisions, knowing you are in control. Sometimes, as with mine today, these decisions can slow down your day and allow you to be truly present in the joy of the moment.

Bonnie Fatio

I Am What I Am

“During much of life I was anxious to be what someone else wanted me to be. Now I have given up that struggle. I am what I am.” – Elizabeth Coatsworth

Cookies, Milk And A Nap

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.” – Barbara Jordan