Do Not Think About The Past
“I do not think about the Past –
I had one but it didn’t last!”
Those words were said by Ogden Nash –
His poems all had a lot of dash!
They lasted ‘til our present times,
Every one with clever rhymes.
Our Past is past, so now we can
Concentrate on a Present plan
Of how to Age with great aplomb,
And Esteem ourselves for what’s to come!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Aging Has Changed
A long time ago
Or so it does seem,
We endured growing old
But without AgeEsteem.
We drooped and we sagged
With the burden of Time,
We stooped and we dragged
With heedless decline.
But now all has changed,
Our future is bright!
Our age is arranged
By the Esteem in sight!
We can face every day
With delight, NOT dismay,
And I hasten to say:
Two New Hips and Hooray!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Autumn Leaves
Autumn leaves are turning
From green to red and gold,
The elderly are yearning
To keep their years on hold.
Each tree of Life has seasons
It’s the same with people, too,
Our ages all have reasons,
Esteem each one anew.
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Face The World With Gratitude
Thank you!
Merci!
Danke Schoen!
(Depending on the language learned)
Thank you for each day one lives,
Thank you for the Joy Life gives.
Thank you for all those to love,
Thank you for the stars above,
And also for what Aging brings
To each and every living thing!
Face the world with Gratitude,
Esteem a brand new attitude,
So when it’s time to say “good Night”,
Give thanks for one more day of light.
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
A Pedigree*
A Pedigree
You would agree
Sounds something good to have.
Horses have it,
So do dogs,
As well as Heifer calves.
We all have “pedigreements”
Superior and grand.
Just try ESTEEMent good sense
And wave an ageless hand.
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
* When a friend was visiting us for three weeks in Geneva, Switzerland she was invited to many of the events we attended. Rather than try to translate when people spoke about who was related to whom and how they were related, which is a favorite conversation among the Genevois, I would simply say “pedigree”. Thus the theme of Alexandra Taylor’s poem. – Bonnie Fatio
Let Your Inner Garden Grow
Be Merry Merry
Not Contrary
Let your inner garden grow.
Be very VERY
Sure to carry
Your flowering buds aglow.
With verbal blooms
In friendly rooms
And bouquets bright as beams.
Dig out the weeds
Of old age needs
And plant your new esteem!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Life’s Stitches
I am much older but it seems
I feel better (bolder) through Age Esteem –
Going on with hope and daring,
Holding on to friends by caring.
If this continues to the end
All of Life’s stitches I would mend
And I’d have sewn my ragged days
Into patchworked finer ways!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Martin Luther King 2014
And along came Martin Luther King
The one whom to the whole world would bring:
Courage and hope and his ultimate dream:
Singular, spectacular, ageless esteem.
King had dreams and he knew
They really can come true
Depending on YOU.
Now’s the time: start anew!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
More Dr. Shigeaki Honohara’s, 101 years, (See blogs Nov. 23 & 24)
Advice for a Long, Healthy Life = Tips for Age Esteem
* To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. I take two stairs at a time, to get my muscles moving.
* My inspiration is Robert Browning’s poem “Abt Vogler.” My father used to read it to me. It encourages us to make big art, not small scribbles. It says to try to draw a circle so huge that there is no way we can finish it while we are alive. All we see is an arch; the rest is beyond our vision but it is there in the distance.
* Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke’s we have music and animal therapies, and art classes.
* Don’t be crazy about amassing material things.Remember: You don’t know when your number is up, and you can’t take it with you to the next place.
* Hospitals must be designed and prepared for major disasters, and they must accept every patient who appears at their doors. We designed St. Luke’s so we can operate anywhere: in the basement, in the corridors, in the chapel. Most people thought I was crazy to prepare for a catastrophe, but on March 20, 1995, I was unfortunately proven right when members of the Aum Shinrikyu religious cult launched a terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway. We accepted 740 victims and in two hours figured out that it was sarin gas that had hit them. Sadly we lost one person, but we saved 739 lives.
* Science alone can’t cure or help people. Science lumps us all together, but illness is individual. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know the illness and help people, we need liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones.
* Life is filled with incidents. On March 31, 1970, when I was 59 years old, I boarded the Yodogo, a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka . It was a beautiful sunny morning, and as Mount Fuji came into sight, the plane was hijacked by the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. I spent the next four days handcuffed to my seat in 40-degree heat. As a doctor, I looked at it all as an experiment and was amazed at how the body slowed down in a crisis.
* Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do. My father went to the United States in 1900 to study at Duke University in North Carolina . He was a pioneer and one of my heroes. Later I found a few more life guides, and when I am stuck, I ask myself how they would deal with the problem.
* It’s wonderful to live long. Until one is 60 years old, it is easy to work for one’s family and to achieve one’s goals. But in our later years, we should strive to contribute to society. Since the age of 65, I have worked as a volunteer. I still put in 18 hours seven days a week and love every minute of it.
These tips were sent to me in an e-mail concerning Dr. Hinohara. His advice also offers excellent tips for enhancing your age esteem.
Bonnie Fatio
Dr. Shigeaki Hinora’s (See blog Nov. 23, 2013)
Advice for a Long, Healthy Life = Tips for Age Esteem.
Each of the following bits of advice for living a long and healthy life are tips and techniques for promoting your age esteem.
* Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot. We all remember how as children, when we were having fun, we often forgot to eat or sleep. I believe that we can keep that attitude as adults, too. It’s best not to tire the body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.
* All people who live long regardless of nationality, race or gender share one thing in common: None are overweight. For breakfast I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Olive oil is great for the arteries and keeps my skin healthy. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat. I never get hungry because I focus on my work. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat.
* Always plan ahead. My schedule book is already full until 2014, with lectures and my usual hospital work. In 2016 I’ll have some fun, though: I plan to attend the Tokyo Olympics!
* There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old. Today, Japanese women live to be around 86 and men 80, and we have 36,000 centenarians in our country. In 20 years we will have about 50,000 people over the age of 100…
* Share what you know. I give 150 lectures a year, some for 100 elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people. I usually speak for 60 to 90 minutes, standing, to stay strong.
* When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can’t cure everyone. So why cause unnecessary pain with surgery I think music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.
These were sent to me in an e-mail and are on numerous sites on the internet. There will be the second, and last, installment of his advice tomorrow.
Bonnie Fatio
