The Amazing Race!
Im sitting on my veranda looking over the tropical grounds this evening; it suddenly crossed my mind how crazy our innate desire to quickly complete stages in our lives can be. If you take a good look back into the past, you will remember that when you are about 4 years old you can’t wait to advance to five years old so you can go to kindergarten. Once you arrived at kindergarten you couldn’t wait to get into the first grade. Then as nature would have it, after the first grade, your scholastic dream is almost immediately set for high school with the “Big Kids”. In our minds we always want to start out by doing “per say” all the things the big kids are doing. Finally around the age of 16 we felt we had arrived. We felt like grown folk simply waiting to be launched out into the adult world. Hey remember… that’s not the end. Don’t forget that after high school graduation when everyone continued referring to us as babies, we wanted to rush to the age of 21 because by then and only then would we arrive at that first grade ideal of our final destination. At that point, if you do something serious to truly embarrass yourself or taint your social standing no one is going to call your Mother! Hopefully!
But of course life’s race is never ending. Our rush against the time is now driven by our desire to finish college/grad school, start a wonderful career search or sometimes, simply to start a family of our own. Just when you think you have it all together your buddies are ribbing you about celebrating your 29th birthday. What feels like only a couple months after that party and race for more time, you find yourself celebrating you’re the big “40” birthday. At this point for most of us, is the time when we began to dream and even focus more about the dream to eventually retire. Miraculously, we understand a lot of language that involves the stock market we could not comprehend 5 years prior. We began conversing more about saving money for retirement along with the financial push to assure college tuition for the kids.
Around the time that we have only been in the work force twenty years and now are striving to keep the kids in the house for their safety but at the same time trying to get them out of the house. That little island paradise or big valley where we will quit working begins to whisper your name and appear in our dreams more frequently.
What a race! It’s as if we spend most our lives speed reading, flipping through the book of life’s pages determined to finish first. The funny part of it all is the fact that we all have to age to reach retirement. The realities of aging never really occur to you while your racing.
My husband and I married very young and in hind sight we hurried a lot of our lives away but eventually there came a time when we started trying harder to back track. It was almost as if one morning we looked into a mirror only to find out that all the while we were racing against time, time was racing against us as well. What seemed to be infallible tight areas of skin on my body started sagging? Areas I had no fat in began to hold what seemed like a warehouse of fat..lol. Okay, I don’t want to be negative or scare you but let me finish. Lol. Your bones start squeaking, joints begin to pop and one of the biggest surprises is that instead of growing as when you were young you began shrinking!
A few months ago I went to a doctor and he measured my height, he said that I was 5’3″ and I know I’m 5’4″. I said “please measure me again,” the turkey had a smile on his face when he said, “Jeanetta you are shrinking”. I thought to myself humorously, Dear God, where are you? When the Doctor and I sat down for a talk, can you believe I asked him if growth hormones would be effective?
Now instead of racing forward a lot of us began visiting the health food store checking out with a cart full of youth rejuvenation lotions, longevity potions and vitamin pills. Oh my Lord! All I wanted was to get to be five years old and make it to kindergarten! It is hilarious watching seniors back peddling, that are racing to turn the clock backwards. Now days you can get everything sucked out tucked up and zapped, that’s all good but your internal clock is still ticking into the ibis.
At the age of 85 my Uncle Paul asked my husband how old are you Charles? Charles at the time was 62. Charles also had just received a couple of his social security checks and was feeling real good about it until Uncle Paul lovingly said ,” man it is all downhill from here”. Uncle Paul, as our elders like to do (inform us..lol), elaborated and begin to tell my husband Charles the things that would start coming with aging as a senior. Uncle Paul went on the tell Charles about his teeth, hair, eyes, joints, muscles, balance, memory and a few other things I won’t mention (use your imagination) lol. Why did Uncle Paul through in this line? “Charles my boy, when you are young money is spent on spare parts for a car but when you get older, you are in need of a few spare parts.” Man the expression on Charles face was priceless after that phone call. I could have picked that face up off the floor and handed it back to him.
Its funny when I was younger its seemed as if everybody was graduating, pregnant or getting married. Now that I am older sometimes I feel as if we did all that racing to push the clock ahead to retirement just to eventually attempt just as hard to move it backwards in vein.
Don’t laugh, but I stopped wearing a watch in the hopes that by not wearing one I would slow time down. To be honest, some nights I don’t like to go to bed because when I get up, I’ll be a day older. Then I remember that if I don’t get up I’m not alive, man that is the pits.
Moving to Costa Rica does not change life’s natural progression. I don’t care how slow the pace of life is here or the beauty/tranquility of your final destination. That sucker we call a time, keeps on racing. Please don’t feel that you have to race to retirement!! Don’t wish your life away!!
Hey!! I’m having a great time with this retirement life. I eat well, travel often and exercise daily. I’m feeling blessed, meeting good people and loving it!! When you get a chance to visit Costa Rica, stop by, have lunch, sit with me on my tropical Veranda. My Veranda is one of the few places you can sit that makes you feel as if time stopped!!
Jeanetta
“Pura Vida”
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