Approaching: 2018…how does that resonate with you? Make you shudder? Make you wonder where all the years have gone? Make you leery/apprehensive/disbelieving that it wasn’t yesterday that you were turning 18?
Oy, those were the days…Remember as a kid your mother sending you outside to play without worries that your picture would show up on a milk carton? Remember during the lazy days of summer leaving your house in the morning on your bike and telling your mom you’d be home in time for dinner? No cell phone to call her and check in, you just showed up at 5:00, like expected. Tell me, how far out-of-sight are your grandkids from you today when you take them to the mall? How times change.
I recently came across an article I wrote in seventh grade for my junior high school newspaper titled, Time, It’s All We’ve Got! I was expressing the thought that we had our entire lives in front of us, time to enjoy everything we were doing, time to make the most of our school time, family time, friend time, fun time. Time to play, time to learn, time to live. I’d like to think we can still apply those ideas to today…
But so many of our peers are using time for doctor appointments, treatments, standing in pharmacy lines and all of which feel like a waste of time but necessary for many during the Baby Boomer years. Hard not to day dream of all the time we wasted back then, just sitting around visiting the future and what we wanted from it.
Then comes the “Did I get what I wanted from my future?” Geeeeez, can’t that question just be deleted from our brain like an unwanted message in our in-box? How much time do we ponder the time lost, dreams lost, expectations lost? And then comes, “Are all those questions a waste of my valuable time today?” Does that imply “regrets” come with the territory? STOP! Can’t handle all these theoretical issues!
So what do we do with this treasure load of inquiries? Ignore them? Put them in a drawer with old birthday cards? Or take them on a quiet walk, sit on a bench and brood or reconcile their realities? Dwelling and moping sounds like a waste of time and squaring their place in our time span today is hard, really hard. Often gut-wrenching, but also, maybe freeing. Giving ourselves the permission to let go of the “If only I would have…” is a gift to the soul! Free yourself of old burdens, throw out meaningless phrases like “Should have, could have,” and turn on the brain garbage disposal to get rid of old rubbish that brings you down! Better yet, write down all those things that take up useless time in your head and walk the piece of paper out to the garbage and dump it! Wash your hands to old litter that takes up unnecessary space within you.
Too late to change the past so what we are left with is CHANGING THE FUTURE!
And that thought is overwhelming BUT it can only be a matter of changing a “mind set.” Paint the living room! Who says it still has to be beige? Buy a new car! Get that convertible you always wanted but knew it wasn’t practical and reset your mind to, “I’m still young and cute enough to look cool with the top down!” That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about! Take the vacation you could never go on because it wasn’t practical with kids! Try jet skiing! Wear a mini-skirt! Like tonight’s trash, throw out the mind set that others may judge you, and create new realities that are different from the past and ENJOY THIS TIME IN YOUR LIFE! Be a new you, like the one you wanted to be when you were turning 18. Okay, can’t do everything different but pick and choose and create new parts of your soul, inner and outer, so there are with no regrets, no apologies and no sadness that time is escaping and live a mind set that says “The best is yet to be!”
Growing Old
How did it happen?
When did it change?
I don’t remember
I don’t recall.
It happened so quickly
I know I was there.
It happened so quietly
Rather quite sneakily.
The changes came
Without my approval
Or my consent.
Those changes
That changed
My youth
Into old age.
Change is okay, change is good. But for the sake of ALL your peers, please remember:
ONCE A BABY BOOMER, ALWAYS A BABY BOOMER!
We are forever 18! And in Judaism, that’s a good number to be!
Wishing everyone a very peaceful and healthy 2018, filled with love and joy and many, many more Happy Hanukkahs!
Sandy
As a Baby Boomer Bubbe who still feels 18 but has four grand kids to prove this is the 21 Century, Sandra writes to leave a legacy for the next generations. Her belief that these precious kids need to know their cultural and family’s past in order for them to live their future is all the muse she needs!
She has a Master’s Degree in Psychology and Cross Cultural studies, has written a family history, personal memoir and is completing her first novel.
Her grandmother’s journey to America and life is her source for her deep belief and love for Judaism.
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