Golden Years Really Sucks?
Aging is the natural consequence of living. Too often many of us complain about getting old. But sit back and look at some of our friends who had never had a chance to get old because they died at an early age.
For me before I went into retirement, life was a hectic routine. There seemed not enough time during theday between a full work schedule, add to that social media, church, alumni events, and family time. Timeseems to have gone so fast and soon I realized many of my contemporaries were passing away one after theother. Suddenly the reality hit me that I was now a part of the so called the older generation.
I
Happily aging with grace
n our society we are brainwashed to think early in life that youth, good looks, money and material thingstranslates to happiness. This preoccupation for youth and good looks had created in many an abnormal orpersistent fear of growing old. The name for this condition is Gerascophobia. Unfortunately, aging is a fact oflife and if you live long in enough you will get old. So if you have Gerascophobia the longer you live the more unhappy you would be, because there is only one way to avoid getting old, that is to die before you getthere. When I was a young physician I heard an elderly gentleman complain, “Doc, this Golden Years really sucks.”
You know you are getting old when you are with your friends you begin talk about grand kids, saying thingslike, “I use to do this and that,” or talking about your aches, pains and illnesses. You fret about the misery of getting old. As soon as you wake up, just getting out of bed takes quite an effort, then you look the mirror see somebody with thinning, graying hair, more winkle lines, eye bags. sagging skin with age spots. As you go on through the day you have trouble doing the things you do with ease. You also frequent have trouble remembering were placed or hid things or the names of people you know. Instead of singing achy breaky heart, it’s now achy squeaky joints. Did I say enough to make you have Gerascophobia?
For the younger generation one advise I would give is, more does not mean better. I mean happiness in life is not dependent on how big your house is, how many cars or how expensive your car is, how big your bank account is or how many letters after you name. Jim Carrey said, “I hope everybody could get rich andfamous and will have everything they ever dream of, so they will know that it’s not the answer.” Yes, many times in life we work too hard to have more and more things to the extent that we don’t have time to enjoy life, hardly have any time with family and friends. Let me paraphrase a Bible verse this way, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and miss being happy.”
One thing that has helped me to enjoy life more after joining the Medicare generation is learning to be more content with what I have, and that has been a great bless blessing. After retirement, one’s income is suddenly diminished and one has to live on a fixed income. Reality sinks in, and your desire to have more and more is dramatically lessened, but you have more time to enjoy what you have and do the things you like to do. It is a refreshing feeling that you are no longer part of the rat race and you don’t have to prove yourself worth at your job.
I believe and practice what John Adams said, “Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if youwish to keep them in working order.” For me retirement is really an exciting period of my life. It has given me opportunity and more time to learn new things. I decided to create a health blog, so I had to learn how to make my own website and manage it. Writing blogs made me do a lot of research and so far I have written almost a hundred articles in the last 8 years. I have reached over 105 countries and have over a thousands of subscribers. I know learned a lot, and today I am more healthy than when I retired.
- My advice to retires is set up short and long term goals. First of all, take time to have close relationship with your maker.
- Secondly, focus on investing time and effort to take of care Gods greatest gift to your body and mind.
- Thirdly learn something new each day to be a greater blessing to those around you.
I still remember this poem we were made to memorize in high school. This has meant more to me as I have gotten older.
A Psalm of Life
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;…..
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Afraid of getting old? Well, I would say if you plan it well, these years may very well turn out the best time of your life.
