Don't call me a "senior citizen".......ever.
Or "retired"......that day will never come, I'm afraid. To be honest, I'm not sure I want it to.
Or "retired"......that day will never come, I'm afraid. To be honest, I'm not sure I want it to.
"Aged"? Don't even try that one.
I have decided that Active Master fits the bill just fine. I discovered this term in Deepak Chopra's book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, one of my current stack that I'm reading in the morning on my back patio as the sun comes up each day. I wish I could claim it as my own, but this column is about honesty above all else, so let's give credit where it's due.
Since I left the world of "doing what the boss wants" for doing my own thing, I have become my own master in that sense of the word. I write for a living now, full time, and am relishing the life of creative effort. And I'm certainly active, since discovering ballroom dancing while also keeping up my gym routine of weights, circuits, and cardio. Then there are my 2 mile walks with a friend a couple of times a week so we can chat and catch up on our respective lives, plus a weekly high-intensity fitness workout, and you can see there isn't much time left in my week for the "active" part.
But I think there is more to the Master part.
Here's what I think: As we age and experience life, with its successes and defeats, we learn to master the roller coaster. We realize that the ideals we had in our youth might still be valuable, but the road to their achievement will not be straight. And often not pleasant. That doesn't mean they have no value; it just means we learn to take the downturns that life throws at us, yet we still fly back up to the top of those rails every once in awhile. And sometimes what appears to be a defeat turns out to be a blessing after all; but sometimes it works the other way, too. What I thought was a valid, worthy goal when I was 20 or 30 or even 40 turned out to be a devil in disguise. I had to experience all of that to understand it, though.
And here I am. I'm still standing and I'm stronger in all ways possible. I'm an Active Master revelling in the journey.
Now, if I could just master that Latin hip thing, I'd have it made.
How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.
"Active master" sounds very interesting! I thought I would be working outside the home for at least another 15 years or so, but lost my job unexpectedly and now I am pursuing a long ignored dream of writing full-time.
ReplyDeleteAs recent as last year i was sure that I would hate not being "out there" but I love this creative life that was put upon me without my permission. Life is good...now if only I had an income.
Ah, yes...those pesky bills! Damn them. I am so fortunate to have found a way to do both: I write curricula for a company that gave me office space for free, so I write for them (somewhat creative, but not overly so), and can still write creatively in between. It's the best of all worlds, as far as I'm concerned! And sometimes those "forced" moves in our lives turn out to be the greatest avenues to pursuing our dream. Good luck and thanks for reading my work....
ReplyDelete