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The political news, extreme weather and brief (but frightening) power outages have made the last two weeks emotionally difficult for me, and I believe for many of us.
Those of us who have lived a few decades are well aware that there are times that can be very gloomy.
With age I find I can feel very vulnerable in such moments.
It's important to nurture the life-savers, spirit-lifters and heart-soothers in our lives, as the truth is that we will need them.
-For my wife and me, our dogs are important connectors to basic life energies and needs. Their needs are simple, and we can give them walks, food, water, snuggles and comfort from thunder. Nurturing them takes us away from our fears (which are mostly imagined in the future, not here and now).
-Our oldest neighbor helped me with a concern about neighborhood conflict and our youngest neighbor shows me again and again how creative and intentional an 18 month old person can be.
-My shop work offers problems that can usually be solved with ruler, pencil, saw and glue.
-The bird feeders are busy with the latest fledglings.
-And my wife is completely off pain-relievers for the first time in 25 years!!!
These are some Here-and-Nows of my life, which give me reasons to get up and move: a very important part of Aging in Place!
Please, let's share our daily spirit lifters. We can lift ourselves together.
Replies to "The political news, extreme weather and brief (but frightening) power outages have made the last two..."
Thank you for your post! Spirit lifters, yes!
-Friends gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers and a gift certificate to a local book store when I finished my stint as Recording Secretary of a group I belong to. The flowers are lovely on my dining room table. And books, I love.
-In the front yard the crocosmia is blooming and bringing in the humming birds. Such a delight especially in the evening when two, or three, or even four hummers will be chasing each other trying to claim ownership of the blossoms.
-Desert Sweet is starting to bloom, and it is pulling in many tiny native bees providing them with sustenance.
-Blueberries in the fridge, ready to go into pancakes.
-A wonderful, caring daughter who, six days after a cervical spinal fusion, remembered my birthday.
Lots of spirit lifters.
This is such a wonderful post!
Aging gives us such wisdom to truly appreciate all that is around us. The small little gifts bring such joy, and we bless the big stuff, things we never thought would happen, and do.
I believe we all have the capacity to be a "spirit lifter". I like this term. There is a light inside of us that is begging to glow. Any small act of kindness will activate it. It make us and the people around us better. Pet, wildlife etc included.
Let it begin with me.
There are many more spirit lifters around than we're aware of. My service dog for sure. Being partial weight bearing on my right leg, full weight bearing in a few days. When the power comes back after 8 hours. Knowing the fire 5 miles away is at the mop up stage. Tiger swallow tails and monarchs. Good neighbors. Livestream church when we can't be there in person. Great doctors. My wife's dog is asking to be let back in the house, or I would list dozens more.
Jim
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This was timely! We were with a few friends of many-years standing last night, the "baby" is about to turn 70. Recent politics, weather, and health and eldercare concerns were not the most cheery of topics.
But one thing we have begun to do (since 2 of us tend to be more chatty than the others) is a round table check-in, where each of us does a current status report over beverages and appetizers. Almost everyone tries to add an upbeat anecdote to theirs.
Of course, we fell into an interesting political discussion - we range in opinion from quite conservative to very liberal. It is amazing to me to see how our varied views, and being able to discuss them comfortably, has led to each of us changing some part of our opinions, clarifying others and being open to one another. We were able to express ourselves, disagree, try to convince, and still hug at the end of the evening.
And the "comic relief" for the evening was our friends' grand-dog and her antics.
So one of my favorite spirit-lifters is time with friends. In fact, during pandemic isolation, and winters when we are far away, we have monthly cocktail hours to keep in touch.