A Getting Old Party...

Thought and Poem – December 17, 2014

This is the time of the year where expectations can run very high. Many center their lives around traditional events where they expect to receive joy, expect to give joy to others, and expect that they will have the energy to exert themselves beyond that of being superhuman to fulfill what we expect of ourselves to accomplish these desires.

~NEWS FLASH~…as we get older, we might not be able to do what we once where able to do. Make sense? We don’t expect our cars to be in perfect running order for us when after we make the final payment and they are finally paid off or when knowledge is given to us that the warranty is no longer valid…do we? Then why is it that when we age we don’t consider that we may breakdown (energy wise) and do not have the “gas” to continue…we feel we have no value and we become like the rusting clunkers we see in junk yards? Does it really mean we don’t have anything to offer or are of no value (even parts are sold from the clunkers in the junkyards)?

I hate having to go shopping at this time of the year. If I thought I had trouble enough finding my car after I left the store with fifty cars in the parking lot…with a thousand cars I will be happy to find my car, get home and still have the energy to wrap myself in a quilt as I sit in a state of shock in my rocking chair.

Many have to push themselves to accomplish their long list of what they expect to get done because they all have to remember that they still have to do what they would normally do in any given day. These traditional events can make weigh heavily on those who are too plumb tired at night to even think of the joy they are going to get or give when the time comes around when they are supposed to be thinking of the “sugar plumb thingy dancing in their heads.”

Personally, at this time of year when I have to warm my aching bones and joints because they hurt in the coldness, have to shovel and pray at the same time (hard to do) so that I don’t fall and break any bones, when I have to worry about remembering to stay away from open areas so that I don’t get a cold or flu and if I wake up warm and breathing…then I am meeting my expectations for this time of year.

What about you? Do you feel the pressures more during this time of the year as you find yourself aging? Share your thoughts with us…Jeanne Claire Probst

A Getting Old Party

Let’s have a “getting old party,” with all the trimmings,

And share the horror stories of the new lives we are about to begin,

And we can sing,

Ding-a-ling-ding-a-ling…hey…are you listening?

We can talk about all the “sleigh rides” we have taken through while the white snow was glistening

And while the “sleigh bells” are ding-a-linging they can harmonize with the “bells” we hear in our ears as we are reminiscing.

Just remember to cross your legs if you are going to laugh,

Or you might end up taking a warm, an unexpected and an even more surprising kind of “bath!”

The thought of doing all the things I used to joke about,

When older people did weird things that had no reasoning, or why they did them I couldn’t figure out,

Then I thought again about how I would be doing some of these very same things soon myself,

So I better start looking now to see who I will turn to for help.

Anyway, back to the party thing,

I will make the cake and you can bring the ice cream.

And even if we won’t remember why we are having a party when we decide one we should do,

The cake and ice cream in my tummy will make me happy, and I am sure yours will be happy too.

Jeanne Claire Probst

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