Category: Ageing
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Shared thoughts . . .
Never mind the mirror neurons today. I’m feeling blue for folks who have not had, or are losing, the opportunity to share old age with each other. After say forty or fifty years together, I suspect that most thoughts are exchanged between ageing partners in a process of mutual osmosis, a kind of seepage from…
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The joy of directed exercise
I’ve always been a kind of get-up-and-go sort of person. Never thinking about stretching exercises, or anything that healthy, but rather just getting on with life, doing activities. Until I couldn’t, after an injury to my left hamstring, which grew progressively worse the more I walked about, the more I tried to ignore it. After…
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Rediscovering the recent past . . .
I’ve had the unexpected privilege of a lovely writing job: in celebration of the upcoming twenty year anniversary of the Allendale Lions Club, my proposal for yet another blog, this time documenting recent social history, was taken up and now I’m plunged deep into the recent past. I may already have mentioned this role in…
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Today we look for joy in the midst of sorrow . . .
I’ve been watching a lovely video, called Winifreda’s Return, uploaded last year to YouTube, of Garry sailing the family yacht/fishing boat of ancient vintage, a century old, and describing its history. Although he was a wonderful narrator, as the craft sailed the high seas, I think he was probably even more at home within the…
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Sun trap!
So we sat outside for a little while in the late afternoon sunshine, thinking about old times actually. I’d already channeled my inner photographer, looking for angles and light, so I’d kind of pre-supposed the joy already. But it was a solace to sit quietly and think together. Is this situation the right way forward?…
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Just in time for a perfect bloom
Not that the week gone by was hard, but I thought, and felt, that I’d put in a fair amount of physical effort. So we were looking forward to a couple of days quietly tending the potted plants in the New Galloway garden. But had there been sufficient rainfall to keep them alive? The rose…
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The joy of ceremony
Over the past fortnight, I’ve had occasion to experience two of the great ceremonies of life, one in person, the other vicariously. Both occasions elicited tears from celebrants and participants alike. There’s something about ceremony that draws us together, connects us, leaves us staggered with the realisation that we are irreducibly social creatures. And yet,…
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Something about slippers . . .
When there’s really nothing better to do than to wonder what sort of brick/block pattern the wall was built in, in the easy shade of a tiny garden, it can feel like a gentle peace has descended. The labours of the day (such as they are, in these senior times) are completed, and a time…
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A life devoted to loving service
After a cheerful day with family at the end of June, our mother died quite suddenly yesterday morning. She had been in progressive decline for the past decade; the end is still so sad to bear. This blog will be in hiatus for a while. Thank you for your kind understanding.
Roads to Joy 