Growing Old Ain't For Sissies

I feel young, mentally and spiritually. My body doesn't always agree, but mostly I make it just fine by taking care of myself. I eat so healthy my M.D. told me to splurge occasionally, and I have an on again, off again relationship with exercise and walking. But I always come back to them.

I was active in my youth and adolescence, cheerleader, walked to school (really), roller skating, bike riding, etc., and I guess that's part of why it's not too hard to get back on the wagon after my lapses, and I figure intermittent activity is better than no activity at all.

I mentioned my doctor, well actually, he's my former doctor. I rarely went to see him, anyway, skipped all of last year, but when I would go, for the flu that wouldn't go away, for my ribs when I fell and almost broke them while cleaning out the hot tub, stuff like that, I could tell that he was pretty much marking me off as another "old lady". I'm not even close to throwing in the towel, but whatever I asked him about he'd end by saying, "You know you're not that young anymore."

I'm very health conscious, research meds before I even think of taking them, would rather go the herbal, natural route, and he ALWAYS wanted to put me on a ton of steroids, antibiotics, pain relievers, etc., that had scary side effects that were worse than the ailment, so we argued over that a lot.

I truly felt that it was all a cop-out. Yes, I'm a senior citizen, but I'm not dead, and I'm just as important as his under 50 patients. So, we parted ways. I didn't make a show of it, and he doesn't know (or care). One of the challenges of aging (in addition to taking care of ourselves) is finding care givers who will treat us as worthy of their time and talents. There'll be another time when I need a medical physician, but I hope he's a better doctor for folks my age, and I'll try to be a better patient.

Anyway, I said all that to say that I think a big part of staying young is keeping interested in life and finding creative things to do. If I can stay active, I'd like to live to be a hundred or so, just to fit in all the arts I'm interested in doing. Here's a ceramic piece I painted yesterday.

And I've come to realize you need a pet. No matter how my hair looks or if I'm feeling on top of the world or a little down in the dumps, Marley is here with me, happy with whatever attention he gets (which happens to be a lot). I don't know if that's a little old lady attitude or not and don't care. We all need to find what works best for us.
Thanks for stopping by,
Love, Cat and Marley