We Are Getting Older
By Bernadette A. Moyer

Yep! It is a fact of life we are all getting older. I first noticed this “age thing” when I looked at new drivers and was like “so they let 12-year olds drive now?” They just looked so young to me.

Then I noticed it with my lines in my face, tougher skin and less smooth hair. I was showing signs of aging.

You know all that crap about your parents how they looked, how they aged and acted and now it’s our turn, ugh!  I find I have more patience but less tolerance, if that makes any sense? I know what I want and I am willing to wait for it and I know what I won’t tolerate and will just as quickly dismiss it.

My new “decision basing lens” now goes like this, “I am going to die one day and so I am doing it, or getting it or going there.” If I want it I go after it, I am getting older. People have died my age. My parents died age 76 and age 78 so it looks like 77 could be my number?

Regardless I learned a long time ago, “life is for the living, live it!” One day I will be gone from here and a memory to some and nonexistent to others. So all this self-induced and self-created drama I am not playing. I wasn’t into it when I was younger and I sure as hell won’t be tolerating it now … I’m getting older!

I still have my little girl laugh though and I still have my faith, aging has not touched these areas of my life.

Because I am getting older, I turn more things off and more people are tuned out. If the news is all bad, I don’t allow it to sap my natural high and energy and just like people that bring zero-net gain to the table. Sorry, life is short and my choice is to be with people that make me think and make me dream and make me want to get closer to them.

I still have that natural curiosity; I want to know everything about the people I care about. I think I might have become my grandmother on this one, she would sit you down across from her and usually her opening line was about “your people” and “where did they come from?’ Oh no I used to find that invasive and now I am getting older and aging and I do it?

Where I may have an open heart like a child I have the wisdom that comes with aging … I know who I am and I know what I like, what I am willing to accept and what exactly needs to be discarded.

Earlier today I heard from a reader who read one of my most popular blogs, I didn’t write it for the sake of popularity I wrote it because it was my experience and it was what I learned. I wrote about my faith and this guy tried to challenge it.

The younger Bernadette would have “walked right in” to that argument, discussion and debate, but the older Bernadette was like “who cares?” You have your opinion and I have mine. It isn’t my job or my desire to recruit you to my thinking and/or to try and change your mind.

I suspect someone pointed out my blog to him and he felt “guilt” his words not mine. Lately I write many political blogs for a particular site and I get pretty beaten up there, years ago it would have bothered me, today I am like; well I am getting read and generating a response, good enough. You see I am getting older, we are all getting older!

I no longer care who agrees with me, the far worse outcome would be 1) not being read at all and 2) no feedback or comments. I mean even a negative comment is better than no response at all, I got him to feel something, as I age that is good and good enough.

Selfies, we are living in a time when taking “selfies” is the norm, I am just as guilty as the next but the truth is that it isn’t that I think I am good looking, it is because I am changing, I am getting older and it shows. Lines on my face, eyes that aren’t as open, face that seems to be puffier and I could go on and on … I am getting older … we are all getting older … those photos document now before later arrives. And “aging” arrives all too soon, I ‘ve learned …

“Oh mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?” from “Landslide” by Stevie Knicks

I still want to be wowed though, I still want to get excited, do new things, and see new people and new places, so maybe I am really not that “old” after all?

What I know for sure is that I am going to die one day and right here and right now … I want to live and I want to learn and I’ll take this “aging thing” over the alternative …

We are all getting older, maybe not such a bad thing after all …

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer
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