I dream of hiking into my old age.
I want to be able even then to pack my load and take off slowly but steadily along the trail.~ Marlyn Doan
One of the blogs I follow closely is Robin at Life in the Bogs and today she had this quote at the beginning of the post. While I don’t hike any distance any more (did I ever I ask myself) and while I guess I have reached my ‘old age’ I love the sentiment expressed by Marlyn Doan. I have never heard of this woman before but she certainly pushed a button for me.
I have posted before on some ‘older’ women and some men who achieve quite amazing feats of endurance at 80, 90 and even close to 100 years old. What is it in their makeup that allows them to keep on keeping on? When conducting my Memories courses I have visited many retirement homes and retirement villages where some appear to be just sitting back and ‘Waiting for God”. I have friends who ask me why I am still so involved in many things instead of just enjoying my retirement. I tell them that I am enjoying my retirement.
Here in New Zealand, we have a TV channel dedicated to UK Television so we get to see reruns of some of the old comedy programs.
photo via Wikipedia
Have you heard of “One Foot in the Grave” – a sitcom featuring Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife, Margaret? After being forced to take involuntary early retirement, the series followed Victor’s various efforts to keep himself busy, whilst encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings. This program ran for 11 years in the UK.
Photo BBC TV
Another comedy is “Waiting for God” set in a retirement home but the protagonists were two feisty oldies who wouldn’t buckle down to the quiet life that was expected of them. Great television.
And I don’t feel old and I don’t know of anything I want to do that I am stopped doing because of my age. Only thing I can think of is renting a car but that is easily overcome by taking out my own insurance. See rental car companies don’t want to take a chance on my being doddery. And they don’t even know me.
Anyway, back to the subject in hand. I have produced my Bucket List so I do know what I still want to do before I leave this world. And I want to do all these things and more. Too many to list but I intend to do whatever I do joyfully and with as much fun as possible. And I have no doubt I shall hike into my old age and hopefully, grow old disgracefully.
Age is the acceptance of a term of years.
But maturity is the glory of years.
— Martha Graham
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 
🙂 Disgracefully is the only way to grow old.
If I can’t go out kicking and screaming, then at least I’m going to be waving my walking stick at someone !
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Yup – kicking and screaming and dancing.
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Old age is something that we should all celebrate. It should not stop us from doing what we love. I admire your visions and aspirations. Hiking, traveling, all of them sounds like a great way to discover self regardless of our age. I’m happy for your zest for adventure.
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Thanks for the comment. I am certainly enjoying growing older with it’s lack of constraints.
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Well, what I want to know is: what had the dear old dollies been up to, that retaining their hats made them feel better about ‘the night before’. Thank God for our memories.
Love from The Big Sister
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Don’t know but the next time we are together we coud dress up like them and try to find out.
Love from the Middle Sister.
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Love the last photo and caption, Judith!
I love to hike, but knee problems have made it more difficult lately…
Wendy
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Hi Wendy. As Christine says, wonder what they had been up to.
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I’m with you, Judith, don’t want to sit around and wait for my name to be called–too many things to do and places to see. Loved your twist on the comment to “grow old disgracefully.”
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Thanks Patti. So long as we are having fun along the way, it can’t be bad.
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I love Hallysann’s comment about growing old disgracefully. lol!!
I want to be one of those people still hiking and doing things right to the grave. I have noticed, however, that even though my mind thinks I’m young, my body occasionally reminds me that I can no longer move the way I used to. That sort of thing is more likely to happen when I’m playing with my granddaughters. It’s worth it. 😀
Thank you for the mention and the link. 🙂
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Yes I regularly have conversations between my mind and body. I just have to keep reminding the body that it can do those things, maybe not as quickly or as well as it used to.
Judith:)
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I’d love to go hiking with you… Let me know when you’re available… 🙂 Age: an incidental, interrupting nuisance… 🙂
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OK I’ll give you a call Elizabeth.
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I pray I am still able to hike into my old age, too. Hiking in the woods is one of my life loves … to not be able to would be torture. Hope my knees hold out 😉
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Thanks for dropping by. Currently I can’t hike anywhere. I have a broken bone in my ankle so am pretty well tied to the house. But once the cast is off I shall be up and hiking again.
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