Last month I turned 70 years old. I have dreaded this day for several years. In fact, I have dreaded it so much, that I completely ruined my 69th year by thinking constantly of turning 70 and so I didn't even appreciate my last year in the 60's decade.
The reason I have dreaded turning 70 was because this puts me in the "old people's" decade. I feel like those are the people with gray hair and achy joints, who stand up slowly, are hard of hearing and go to bed at 9 pm. The world categorizes them as "has beens" and that is how I thought my life would become.
But my hair is still brown (with lots of gray). My joints don't hurt (knock on wood). I have noticed, though ,that I can't hear high pitches and some nights I'm anxious to go to bed early, so I see myself sliding into being "old." But I have so much energy still. I want to continue teaching music and I want to travel and be an important person in my children and grandchildren's lives. I don't want to be old and gray and sit in a rocking chair.
And to that mental turmoil I was experiencing in comes the pandemic with quarantine and life routine changes, closures and major upheaval. Now I really am sitting at home doing nothing day after day. My nightmare is real!
So I had a mid-life crisis. I had a melt down. I had to talk seriously to myself and my God and get a handle on this new life. Here is what I came up with:
*Life is in 3 parts:
Single life - birth to marriage (23 years) Wife/Mother – (age 23-61, 38 years)
Widow/Retirement (age 61-99, 38 years) These years are based on my life.
*The last third of my life is as long as my middle life!
*I’ve already lived 9 years of my third life and have possibly 25+ years
more---that’s a lot of time.
*What am I going to do with it? (I come from ancestors who lived a long life, so that’s what I’m counting on)
*I’m definitely not a “has been”. I have interests, passions and goals. I have a lot more
things I need to accomplish and do.
*This is my third life and I need to relish it, enjoy
it, and keep learning, serving and loving.
I felt better about my life after figuring all of that
out. But with COVID-19 I can’t keep teaching as a service missionary, I can’t serve at the temple, and I can’t teach my music groups. Then I remembered my 2020 yearly goal is to ACCEPT the season of
life I’m in, accept the season of the year that’s here and accept others as they are. So I had to figure out what I could do during
this time of life. I felt like if I knew
what my values were, and did things each day that involved them, then I would
feel like I was accomplishing things.
The values I decided on were: *Learn something new *Serve others *Seek Christ *Teach others
I realized I have been doing things which include
those values and so I feel much better about how I am spending my days. I have a purpose in life. I have goals. I'm learning lots of new music on my banjo, ukulele and mandolin. I'm looking for Just Serve projects and doing them. I love reading the scriptures and learning from Come Follow Me podcasts. I'm teaching my grandchildren through the marco polo app and doing science projects at my home.
I AM NOT A HAS BEEN!
Watch out people. Here I come with 70 years experience. Welcome to the next third of my life!!
Thanks for reading,
Cathy
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