On A Gray Day

Despite seeing the sun shining, one of my friends said she was having a “gray day” when we spoke on the phone one morning. She was normally bursting with age esteem and enjoying the opportunities surrounding her. However, on this particular day she felt like Scrooge and yelling “Bah, humbug!” and that was exactly who she sounded like as she decided to be miserable.

One of the antidotes for a miserable day is to get out and do something for someone else. Share your talents and focus outward. So I sat down and wrote this Age Esteem rhyme for her.

 On A Gray Day

When you are down and out

Sit alone, sigh and pout

Feeling down, out, really low

Shake yourself! Get up and go!

Step out of your gray, sad mood

Look outside and do some good

There are those who need you there

With your talents, smile and flair.

It is time to stretch, try something new.

Realize a dream; realize a few!

This is your time to reach out and give

Your time to sing, dance and really LIVE!

You are one of God’s chosen blessed

Why you are down, I could not have guessed.

When I look at you or hear your voice

I think you must be God’s first choice.

He gave you talents, oh, yes he did

(You I would never dare to kid.)

Talents in you overflow

And new ones await to grow.

So what if you do feel low and listless on this day so gray?

A precious resource you are for your feelings today

So replace those blues, with a colored rainbow display!

And grabbing its brilliance, find happiness on your way!

 Bonnie Fatio

Growing Pains

“Growing Pains”

That does explain

Our ever-changing moods –

We way and wane

From Bright to Broods

A pattern we entrain.

How to seem

In Harmony

With Age Esteem

And synchrony

Of Painless Qualities?

“No pain, no gain”

a wise refrain!

Just aim for Joy

Don’t get annoyed

With fruitless “frivolities”!

Written by Alexandra Taylor† for AgeEsteem®

Eggplant For Healthy Aging

Aubergine (eggplant) is a vegetable with many benefits.  High in fiber but low in calories and fat, it contains an antioxidant which is beneficial for the brain. Vitamins B 1 and B6 as well as potassium, manganese, magnesium and copper are components as well.

Eggplant is an anti-cancer, anti-cholesterol vegetable due to substances which fight free radicals in the body.  However, when eaten in great amounts, it can increase joint pains in the body when arthritis is present, or influence gall bladder problems and activate stones due to the high level of oxalates.

On the whole eggplant is a very nutritious and valuable health-promoting food.

An easy way to prepare eggplant and to give them a taste of Provence is to cook slices on the barbeque. Simply slice the eggplant lengthwise into slices. Place them on the barbeque for about five minutes, turning them over once. Put them on a platter and dribble a bit of olive oil over them. It is a tasty way to enjoy healthy eggplant for healthy ageing.

Grandma Nature

Calcium For Healthy Aging

We all know about calcium, how good and necessary it is for strong bones and teeth. We all probably know as well in what foods high quantities of calcium are found such as milk, cheese and yogurt among others.

Latest studies show that calcium is also helpful in maintaining the arteries and a healthy heart. It is the only natural nutrient which plays this double role. In fact, it is known to lower blood pressure. This wonder mineral also aids in weight loss, eliminating bad fat.

However, most recent research in various countries and through many tests show that in order for calcium to be assimilated in the body and deposited where it should be, in the bones and the blood, and perform its miracles, vitamin K2 is needed. Where is vitamin K2 found?

For many years the Japanese have known the benefits of menaquinones which is found in vitamin K2. The highest amount is in a food called natto (fermented soja) which they eat in abundance. In other parts of the world where this food is not consumed one can get vitamin K2 in the following foods: dark green vegetables, meat, eggs and high fat dairy products.

A balanced diet, by eating a variety of food, will supply enough vitamin K2 so that one will feel healthy and strong because of the assimilation of calcium in the body.

Grandma Nature

Adieu Alexandra Taylor

Another page has turned as we say “Adieu” to Alexandra Taylor who has kept us entertained and uplifted with her poems for almost five years. AgeEsteem published her first poem, Celebrate Your Age on October 27^th, 2010.

Ever since then she has been generously sharing her talents with the audience of AgeEsteem blog weekly. One of my many favorites is just four lines.

Rejoice!

Let your voice

Be the clue

To the you

Of your Choice.

 Alexandra Taylor wrote this after reading the chapter “Rejoice” in my book
 AgeEsteem: Growing A Positive Attitude Toward Aging
.

Her poems developed as a genuine pastime after she attended an AgeEsteem program. I well remember our discussion that began with her explaining to me that she had no talents to share. I recalled seeing cartoon characters that she had made into drawings for her children previously and as our conversation moved forward I learned that she had designed greeting cards with both drawings and prose. This soon led to her poems and my suggestion that she might like to write for AgeEsteem.

What few people know is that she wrote her poems while waiting for the bus, walking home from town, or sitting on a park bench. She wrote these rhymes on scraps of paper or envelopes that she found in the trash next to the bus stop or on the program from a concert she had attended. On the rare occasions that they were actually on writing paper, they were often stuck in an envelope already addressed and sent through the mail to someone else before she salvaged it to enclose her latest rhyme. She was a scavenger at heart! I hope to make a book of her many poems, handwritten and on “recycled” paper as she gave them to me.

Alexandra thwarted Google because she never wanted to be interviewed or to have her photo published. She was happy to simply share her talents with no acclaim. It was enough to know that others enjoyed her poems.

Alexandra’s latest poems remain to be published, two of which she wrote during her last days.

Alexandra Taylor left us in much the same way that she lived, quietly and with dignity. Death is, after all, a natural ending to this life as we know it. She leaves us with the precious gift of her wealth of poems and memories of moments shared, both of which are life continued.

Bonnie Fatio

Bicycling For Healthy Aging

In most cases bicycling is done to improve one’ s figure and to tone up the muscles.

However cycling is also a wonderful cardio-vascular exercise that reduces blood pressure and cholesterol, thus lowering the risk of cardio vascular disease.  New studies show cycling is good for the back and joints and even for arthritis.

Why not go bicycling in the open air with a friend? Breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the wonders of nature also contribute to a healthy body,  a positive attitude and enhance your age-esteem.

Grandma Nature

Hospital Poetry

Doctors and nurses and

Agreeable showers

Perfusions and pink pills

Almost every hour.

The scenery is wheel chairs

And blue-sheeted beds

With plumped up white

Pillows for all patients’ heads.

There’s never a moment

For making up poems

That’s why it’s much better

To write them from home!

Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®

while waiting to be discharged from the hospital.

What Do You Really Want Out Of Life?

What do you really want out of life?

This is an important question to ask yourself as you age. What you want the rest of your life to be like, and how do you achieve this, is a common theme within Age Esteem presentations and workshops.

It is especially pertinent to ask yourself this question when you reach the stage in life when your career (working either outside of the home or dedicating your time to family) begins to wind down. You now have time to ask yourself, “What do I want the rest of my life to look like? What do I really want?”

In her Daily Spiritual Practice for July 20?^th 2015 Rev. Donna Loflin from the Unity of the Hills in Branson, Missouri shared the following message. Her message is pertinent for your Age Esteem.

“What do I really, really, really want?” ~Elizabeth Glibert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

“Its been said that we are transitioning out of the Information Age and there are many different ideas about which age we are now entering. Whichever age we are entering, we can see that systems are changing and paradigms are shifting. We are moving beyond mere knowledge and embracing higher levels of consciousness.

The world needs you: your talents, your gifts, your creative ideas and your rebel ways to lift us higher and lead us further. Something inside of you is inviting you to dream bigger and shine brighter. But how do you answer your heart’s calling when you work, manage your household, perhaps raise a family or caretake others? How do you make time to be creative when your never ending to-do list never ends?

Take it to the cushion. It could be your meditation cushion or your couch cushion. Wherever it is, sit yourself down, close your eyes and ask your heart, “What do I really, really, really want?”

In 2008 Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” was on “Oprah” and she shared a lot of wisdom she gained while traveling through Italy, India and Indonesia to write her New York Times best-seller. But the one idea that caught fire with people was her invitation to ask ourselves, as we go into meditation, “What do I really, really, really want?”

Gilbert said it is extremely important to ask “really” three times and to emphasize the word the third time you say or think it. Doing so invites your heart to answer it honestly.

You may not hear the answer right away. Be patient. And you may not “hear” an answer at all. You might see what looks like a sign OR you may feel a strong intuitive hunch. However your Higher Power answers, listen! You are being guided.

It may take a week or more to hear/see/feel an answer. Don’t give up. Keep asking…and keep listening. Inner guidance leads to your passion.

Living a life of “who you are meant to be” will not only change you…it will change the world.”

Cherries For Healthy Aging

Cherry season is a healthy season for us as we age. Sweet and sour cherries are very beneficial for good health.

Sour cherries have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body and are rich in antioxidants.  One study has found that reduction in pain from arthritis is a positive effect of sour cherries on the body.

Sweet cherries are rich in vitamin C.  They lower the level of urates in the blood, thus reducing the risk of gout.  Cherries maintain their health benefits after being cooked as well.

Foods such as cherries are also beneficial for our age-esteem. When we pick cherries we exercise many muscles as we stretch and bend. If we share the cherry picking or eating with others it creates a valuable social experience. And why not tap into your creative juices to make something new with the cherries? All of these ideas, added to the healthy benefits to your body, will also enhance your age-esteem.

Grandma Nature

An Impatient Patient

 I’m an impatient patient!

Yes I am!

I want to leave now,

In a moving van!

I’m impatiently here

In a Hospital Bed –

Patience is out there

Waiting for it to be “fed”!

With calmness and coolness

And positive thoughts

(All of those attitudes which

Bonnie has taught!)

Patient and Patience

The one wants you to stay

In clinical care (patient)

The other says practice it,

No matter where! (patience)

Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®