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← Return to Happiness for Old Folks
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Hello Ed, Just wanted to let you know I just read your post and you are so right about happiness. I can’t seem to find it and has been so elusive since I turned 70. My consistent thoughts about how much I can’t do anymore due to arthritis was hijacking my happiness, I found your post a great reminder of how we can control our thoughts and feelings very helpful today! Thank you.💕
Replies to "Hello Ed, Just wanted to let you know I just read your post and you are..."
Hi, Bluebird!
Thank you for your response.
It's a few months since I started this topic, and I'm still learning!
Loving, caring, listening, sharing and being happy is an endless study, and incredibly rewarding.
My friend Charles Foster was a wonderful example. He lost a lot of abilities over the last 10 years of his life, but lived to be 95 without complaining, always focusing on what he enjoyed. When he went fully blind he went to museums with friends and loved hearing them tell him they felt about the paintings!
I'm still learning from Hazel. When she likes something: meeting someone, going for a walk, or just out back to pee, supper, treats, corn on the cob, a frozen carrot, doing tricks, snuggling, ear rubs...her happiness in uninhibited. She really releases into her joy with all her heart and no embarrassment! I'm getting better at that, and recently had two occasions of the greatest joy of my life, struck by the wonder of two "everyday" things that I really like.
Hey, I can enjoy them every day if I take a moment to notice!
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I'm glad you found @edsutton helpful. He is often a guiding light for those of us who "just can't do it all" anymore.
This week I am finding joy in the fact that, although I am slower and maybe not as strong as when I was younger I can learn new things (like learning all the details of using our year old camper from dumping the tanks 🤢to hooking it up) and do some old things (more slowly - like unpacking from 4 months away.) As for the camper, my husband is teaching me ways to manage the tasks safely with less strength. And the unpacking/putting away/road laundry that used to take me 48 hours will likely take about 5 days.
Another joy I have learned from my dear friends is finding suitable hobbies - instead of a huge quilt, I now make smaller pieces of art. And I found out that if you can still use your hands, even a little, you can draw and paint. Even my tremors can work to my advantage - on my shakiest days I do landscapes, flowers and birds - my squiggly lines fit nature very well.