The Simple-Minded Joys of Old Age

Posted by edsutton @edsutton, Mar 12 11:33am

Growing old, I find it's getting easier to be happy.
When I was younger I was driven by ambitions, and no accomplishment was enough for long.
Now my ambitions are mostly about simple moments in my day.

I do simple exercises standing in front of a bookcase for support, and while squatting or turning I may notice the title of a book I read and wanted to keep. I feel time spent reading was one of the best investments of my life. Sharing exercise with them makes me glad.

Yesterday I bought a big rutabaga turnip. In my family only my grandmother and I liked rutabaga, and I only know of it because she cooked it for me when she realized I liked it. She died fifty years ago, but tonight I'll have slices of sauteed rutabaga with paprika and happy memories of her soft voice.

I feel lucky to have lived long enough to become simple-minded.

How about you?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Aging Well Support Group.

rollingf | @rollingf | Mar 15 10:52pm

To all those GARDEN:

You are practicing the highest form of magic == The Power of CREATION!

Magic has four levels (based on the energy it takes to perform) Low to high:
1. Destroy
2. True Name
3. Control
4. Create

Look in Geneses. They are all there!

larust8 | @larust8 | Mar 16 8:27pm

In reply to @carmine100 "@larust8 Gardening give me a reason for tomorrow. Photo of tomatoes in large pots." + (show)

@carmine100 Those are beautiful healthy plants! Are they from this year? If so, it must be beautifully warm where you live. I’m the same, knowing I get to work in my garden gets me out of bed bright and early. Right now I’m indoor gardening while my tomato and peppers sprout and grow until they’re ready to move outside.

carmine100 | @carmine100 | Mar 16 9:14pm

In reply to @larust8 "@carmine100 Those are beautiful healthy plants! Are they from this year? If so, it must be..." + (show)

@larust8 No they were from last summer. The big pots are good because you can drag them to another location.

I plant a lot of cherry/grape tomatoes. They can be harvested starting in July. The fist sized ones don’t ripen until late August.

At my age, gardening is a reason for tomorrow.

carmine100 | @carmine100 | Mar 16 9:17pm

In reply to @larust8 "@carmine100 Those are beautiful healthy plants! Are they from this year? If so, it must be..." + (show)

@larust8 Thhis year I got into doing sprouts in mason jars. Nutrient dense food to add to my omelets and salads. 2-3 rinses a day for five minutes of work.

bjk3 | @bjk3 | Mar 17 2:51am

In reply to @carmine100 "@larust8 Thhis year I got into doing sprouts in mason jars. Nutrient dense food to add..." + (show)

@carmine100
Thank you for sharing this. I used to grow sprouts years ago - 50 plus years ago! I still have one of my amber glass mason jars. Mine has its own screen to make rinsing easy. I should do this again - fresh sprouts are a great addition to almost every other food. I probably quit doing sprouts when my kids were born - lack of time on my part, lack of acceptance on theirs!
~ Barb

susiewordsmith | @susiewordsmith | Mar 17 11:31am

In reply to @rollingf "My sleep pattern is a little different. While I was working I spent most in bed..." + (show)

@rollingf
Love the image of your green beard! And looking forward to October pink! Thanks for sharing about breakfast taking an hour. I wanted to get to my desk early today to start new phase of project...but simply could not leave kitchen without having read most of NYT, and then, (as today), getting sucked into "Late Night" - the column in which NYT columnists "stay up late so you don't have to," with 5 - 10 minutes clips of Best of Late Night. Aside from a couple legacy clients, I no longer work for monetary pay, but I'm doing research and mastering new formats for writing for a project that has grown out of family history research. Ultimately, it will become a screenplay for which I'll have done research, and which my daughter (a published script writer among other accomplishments) will turn into a play (and/or TV series and/or feature film...if any are produced 10 years from now). I'm debating between feeling guilty for reading paper and tickling brain with Late Night snippets before getting to work, or revelling in being formally "retired"? Clearly, I'm inclined to go with the latter. So refreshing to see someone whose retirement activities include the fanciful. Too easy to get sucked into "organ recital"s.

mcchesney | @kathleen1314 | Mar 17 2:47pm

We seem to be similar people. 🙂

My husband and I try to share a moment of "awe" every day; most times it is a simple sight or pleasure. I will share the memory of this reply as my moment of awe, today....thank you!

I tell everyone that of all my obsessions throughout life, reading and what gardening I can do continue to give me joy. I am now rereading the Patricia Briggs, Mercedes Thompson books, so much fun!

Rutabaga, yum. This is the one dish that I make just for myself at Thanksgiving and during the winter. I boil mine with bacon grease in the water or some hog back or salt pork, then seasoned with salt and lots of pepper. I say you know that you are in the country when you can easily buy hog back at the grocery store.

Wonderful, the perfect side dish for roast, turkey etc. But no one but me loves it, sigh. I remember eating it at every Thanksgiving when I was growing up. Also, it is sweet and yummy raw. When I am dead there will no more rutabagas on the Thanksgiving menu, but I share the memory every year with my kids and grandkids so maybe the warm memory of rutabagas with family will remain.

Ha, I continue to eat turnip greens and talk about my father in law who grew and prepared them. I am the only one in my family and in my husband's family which eats them and tells the story.

Funny how so many memories are bound around food and eating with family.

Nanci | @kildaren96 | Mar 18 5:44pm

In reply to @kathleen1314 "We seem to be similar people. 🙂 My husband and I try to share a moment..." + (show)

@kathleen1314
This is one of my all time favorite salads in the summer. Now I need to go put the ingredients that I don’t have on hand, on my grocery list. The agave mix (or you could easily use honey or maple syrup) makes a LOT so I add a lot more pecans to it as well as walnuts for other salads. I also use olive oil instead of canola oil.
https://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/raw-kale-salad-with-root-vegetables/

greengold | @greengold | Mar 19 11:35am

In reply to @kildaren96 "@kathleen1314 This is one of my all time favorite salads in the summer. Now I need..." + (show)

@kildaren96
Thanks for the recipe. Definitely good food is one if the joys of life. Something we can look forward to 2-3 x a day . Many variations only limited by our creativity and health. I find that limiting my snacking increases my meal enjoyment. Also, even though I live alone, making interesting meals for myself is a priority.