"As youth recedes into the rear view mirror, and your face slides south in succumbing to time and gravity, and your joints ache from decades of overuse, and your short-term memory becomes a sieve, something curious happens. You get happier. I don't mean the kind of ecstatic happiness you periodically feel amidst the turbulence of your teens or 20's. I'm talking about a growing contentment, an acceptance of yourself and of life as it is, a grateful appreciation for each moment that you continue to grow breath...."
William Falk/The Week, March 2, 2012
Since I retired and especially since we moved here to Tennessee, I have had a new outlook on life and was never quite sure how to put it into words. Then I came across an article in The Week and it captured exactly what I'm feeling. I reprinted the portion of it above which when I read it, I went OMG....that's me! Quiet happiness and contentment. Some have wondered how we can live with our one daughter, Michele, and her three little girls and not go nuts. For me, I embrace the chaos. I feel like I have found my bliss. I look forward to washing baby bottles, folding laundry and sitting on the floor with Lexi playing with her toys. Grandpa and I practically knock each other over trying to get to the car first when Shelly pulls into the driveway at the end of the day with the kids....no matter, which one(s) she has. With visitation with their daddies, we only have all three two nights a week and those two nights are on the chaotic side but we manage because we want to. I love helping with homework and enabling Shelly to come home to a clean house after a long day at work (not totally Martha Stuart; don't do their rooms or all the cooking). But their is enough for us to do to make us feel useful in our retirement and a chance to pass some of our wisdom (and structure) down to the grandkids and our impact has already been noticed.
As for me, personally, I have found contentment and acceptance in myself; more now than ever before. So, I've put on some unwanted pounds, don't curl my hair and don't put on makeup every day but I just don't worry about those things as much as I used to. I'm healthy and I'll know when the time is right to work on losing the weight. As for the hair, maybe I'll dig out the curling iron some day....until then, I have several great baseball hats to throw on my head which seems to be the rage down here in Tennessee. As far as makeup goes, with just my Mary Kay moisturizer, my face has never looked better. Actually, I can almost here it saying "thank you".
And, you know what? To the grandchildren, we will always be Grandma and Grandpa....no matter how much we may look now or change over the years.
It's hard NOT to feel contentment and acceptance with that going on!
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