Today I’m just noodling about the pleasures of life.
The act of creating something special you love, even something new to you, is available to us at any age. I was nourished this week by two marvelous events that prompted these thoughts.
OLD COUNTRY ROAD, is a band consisting of (pardon me) 4 old guys and one younger man who grew up in the hey day of traditional country and bluegrass music. Possibly because I’m really starting to feel my own age, I thoroughly enjoyed their recent concert. In fact, I’m a fan. These white haired musical phenomenons, all retired from successful careers, just won’t stop playing the old music they love from the 50s and 60s.
They delight their older audiences with the memories the songs evoke. They forget, they laugh and we all laugh, then they remember, and they just do their thing. Rehearsing weekly and playing occasionally in the community are key activities in their elder lives. Their concerts clearly nourish them and all those who hear them, reminding me that is never to late in life to create great fun and let it ripple out.
What was different and equally nourishing was my participation in THE REUNION PROJECT at our local Loomis Village. After attending her 50th high school reunion, Lora Brady was taken with the histories of women whose lives have spanned so many significant changes, her own included. (For more on this span of time from a woman’s perspective, I heartily recommend the Ruth Bader Ginsberg documentary, RBG.)
Lora, a resident scholar in Women’s Studies at Brandeis University, felt sufficiently energized by that reunion experience to create a project to get elder women of my generation talking, not only with each other, but sharing our journeys with younger women. Her intervention prompts and highlights those conversations in retirement communities and senior centers.
A prize winning photographer, this was Lora’s self-initiated third “career” and livelihood. Her “creation” has given meaning to her own life, to those who participate, and to the communities in which the participants live.
Our creativity never needs to die. In fact it nourishes us, and all those around us. Speaking of nourishing oneself, I’ve just started another journey book about living my life on the way to 80. Apparently, reflecting on healing, aging, living life, and writing about it, is what I do to keep me sane and happy.
What is it that YOU are hankering for in your life?
How might YOU create more of it?