|
Wow, I’m 70!!!
And Life is Better Than
Ever!
Even I am
surprised that reaching another birthday has never bothered
me. Perhaps something I said to my son, David, 27 years
ago, on my 43rd birthday, will shed some light on why.
|
It was
1977. We were in a taxi in New York City on our way to
my birthday luncheon celebration when David repeated
something he had said on so many of my previous
birthdays: “Gee, mom, you’re getting old.”
This time I
turned to him and replied: “Well, dear son, lets
look at it this way, either I become another year older,
or I’m six feet under.”
David
stared a strange look for a second or two and said
nothing. He has never again repeated that
statement. The other day, a few days prior to
this, my |
|
|
Oleda and her
son David, 1977 |
| 70th birthday, we reminisced together about that
incident. This time his comment was simply, “I
love you, Mom.” How nice.
David will turn 46 in
December.
|
I can honesty say
I don’t think about how many birthdays I’ve had. I’m too busy
thinking about what I’m going to do next, staying vibrant and
healthy, how much fun I have with the love of my life, my
husband, watching my three grandchildren grow and learning new
things. I have no time to think about “I’m getting old.”
It wasn’t always
like this. When I was 29 and a model in New York City, I
was concerned about the length of my hair. In fact, whenever a
client wanted to have my hair shortened because they needed a
certain look, I refused. I felt that, when I reached the
old age of 30 I’d be required to cut my hair short or
risk looking silly as an older woman with long hair. I
lost a few bookings, but I wanted to prolong having long hair
as long as I could.
Well, as you can
see, I changed my mind about long hair on older women. I
kept it long through my 30’s and onward, and I still keep it
long. (Long hair isn’t for everyone, I just happen to like it
for me.) I learned, and now I preach, we can look and
be younger as long as we wish.
Even if we lived
to age 120, life would still be too short. All of us
have so much more talent than we realize…so much we have not
tried, so much more to do. No, at 70 we cannot compete with
the “20-somethings” in physical activities, but we have been
there – done that. Now, on to other even more challenging and
fun things to learn and do. Life has so many different
“levels” and all are exciting to go through and enjoy. Even if
I tried something and was not successful at it, I learned from
it…I grew from it, so in my mind I did not fail. Not to
have tried, that would have been failure. I believe that if we
don't fail at something now and then we're not doing
enough.
Speaking of
learning new things…A few years ago, my grandson, David, at
age 6, was very disappointed in me. He wanted me to play a
computer game with him, but I had to tell him I didn’t even
know how to turn the machine on. (And at that time I had no
intention of learning.) This 6 year old child looked at me and
said, “Nana, I can teach you.”
 |
|
|
Oleda's
Birthday is August 12 |
|
It wasn’t long
after that I decided I needed to learn to use a
computer. Today, I can’t live without it. All the copy you see
on our Web site, as well as our catalog and ads, first came
from my very own personal computer. (We have editors, of
course, thank goodness.) Then when my lovely daughter-in-law
saw everything I could now do on the computer she said to me,
“Mom, if you can learn the computer at your age, I can too!” I
didn’t know whether to hug her or ask what she meant by that!
So what’s it like
for me turning 70? Beautiful! I’m happy; I have no
aches or pains; I’m very healthy; I have many people to love;
I feel loved; and there is never a dull day. I could be
any age!
No matter what
age you reach on your next birthday – don’t focus on
how long you have already lived, …but rather on all the many
things you can do to enrich your life going forward,
especially how best to stay healthy and fit, using preventive
measures to ensure a long, meaningful and beautiful
life.
Much love to you
on my birthday.
|
