Dear friends,
At the age of 50 I became the first-time administrator of a 100-bed nursing home in a rural Canadian community. It was, and continues to be, the most meaningful work I have done in my life.
Fifty is the age when, no matter how optimistic you are (and I can assure you that I am the queen of optimism!), you have to acknowledge that you are at least half-way through life and quite likely more than half-way to the date of your eternal demise.
Like many people my age, I am giving serious though to the last half of my life. What do I want to do with the time I’ve got left? How do I age successfully, and what does successful aging even mean?
Working with seniors has highlighted so many things to me. I have seen what a life well-lived looks like, and how lives squandered have turned out. Every day I observe individuals aging with grace – or not.
Do it now!
The first thing I can tell you with certainty is that your last half of life will be unpredictable. Very unpredictable.
Imagine my shock when I met my first resident who was only a few years older than me. It has been just as shocking to celebrate birthdays with centenarians and to hear about all the changes they have lived through, and continue to live through!
If you have things you want to do in life, no matter what your age , now is the time to start prioritizing and making those things happen.
You are never too young to start living your “retirement” dreams and you are never too old to try anything!
This isn’t just hollow advice. I’ve been following it myself. Like many people I had always felt that the time and money weren’t available, and that spending more time on my passions in life was something that would come later, probably in retirement.
Since beginning to work in a nursing home I’ve done a complete 360 on this line of thinking and I do not regret it. For example, some passions I have started to embrace are:
- Tiny Home. Tiny houses have been a long-time obsession of mine. Since starting this job I have purchased my practical version of a “tiny home”. It’s a 672 sq ft cottage-style prefab. Insanely enough, this little cottage is about to become my full-time home (but that is a story for another day!).
- Van Life. Along the lines of tiny living, I’ve also followed (stalked?) more than my share of van-lifers on YouTube and last fall I swapped my gas-friendly Honda Civic for a gas-guzzling van that my Sweetie built out for camping. We got one trip in before it got too cold for camping. What a teaser! We are now waiting for this long Canadian winter to be over so we can head out on some new adventures in our van.
- Road Trip. In the spring of 2022 my Sweetie and I drove across the United States of America from California to New York. I lost track of the number of states and cities we visited. It felt like a “spring break” adventure that we should have taken in our twenties – except we didn’t know one another back then! We tented, slept in the car, rented hotels and stayed with family along the route. We ate authentic Mexican food and spent days in the desert because I loved it too much to leave. Slab City, Palm Springs, Sedona, Albuquerque…every stop was more fun than the last.
The interesting and shocking thing about all of these adventures has been the realization that, once I put aside my belief that these were things to be done later in life, there was little to no problem to make them happen. My mindset was all that was holding me back!
What was I waiting for? What are you waiting for?
Do it now.
Sincerely,
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