You Know You Are Getting Old?

I am blessed to have a few good, longtime friendships that span the time when I was a young, single girl, through being a young wife and mother and now an older person? An empty nester? I am at the beginning of my sixth decade of life and so are many of my friends and family.

My husband and I went out to dinner with some long time friends. We were just finishing up our meal when our dinner companions began to tell us that they were shopping around cemeteries. What? They were looking for their next "home', their final one. They were debating between above ground or below. They were concerned about cost, a very necessary concern. My friend and I just lost our mothers a few months ago so we were both very familiar with the costs of a burial plot and funeral. We both agreed that our parents' generation were great savers. Perhaps they lived more frugally than we do? Or they were better at saving money? Or living today just costs so much more than in our parents day? Let's leave that debate for another time and instead get back to affording our final resting place. Morbid dinner conversation or just the thoughts of the sixty something crowd?

A few days later I met another "old" friend for lunch. We were chatting about a variety of topics when I mentioned that I was looking around for a new bedroom set. My first one was now 35 years old, having purchased it as a young bride. Time for a new one! I was joking that I didn't need this one to last that long when my friend smiled and said she understood. After all she continued, we probably have a good twenty years left? I paused and thought, the clock was ticking.

What happened to the carefree conversations about our next vacation adventure or the new car we were planning to buy? Our children were now adults and on their own. That's a good thing! But we still have many years to look forward to, yes? We can still travel and although no longer building a career, retirement is very inviting! We have more time for ourselves alone and as a couple. Sure we have more aches and pains and talk about what medications we are all on but surely we still have some spring left in our step?

This is my thought. Let's plan adventures and fill each moment with laughter. Let's enjoy spending time with our adult children and listening to all of their future hopes. But let's remember our own hopes for the future. Maybe we find ourselves with more past years than future ones but let's make the most of what still is to come!