The Active Boomer motto is: Be Active. Stay Active. Embrace Aging™ . Why embrace something we’ve fought our entire lives? Weren’t we the “never trust anyone over 30” generation? The ones who challenged the 1950’s straight-laced rules with free love, rock music, and Levi jeans? My brother was suspended from school in the 8th grade for wearing blue jeans and a button down collar white shirt to school (gasp!). Very, very radical attack on the school dress code! When I first started teaching , women faculty had to wear dresses and skirts- no pants or jeans for us! Now, we wear jeans to work, to dinner, even to church!
Dictionary.com defines embrace as “press to the bosom (sounds comforting to me), to take or receive gladly; accept willingly; to adopt”. Synonyms: seize, embody. Now we’re talking. Just like we changed attitudes about sex, music, civil rights, women’s roles, and dress we can seize the opportunity to change views about aging. Twain famously said, “Aging is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.” To embrace aging is to recognize that it just doesn’t matter to me.
Someone once said, “They say that age is all in your head. The trick is keeping it from creeping down into your body.” Creeping down into the body is going to happen whether we want it or not. We can fight it with facelifts, tummy tucks, human growth hormone injections- yikes! Years ago my sister and I were in a gift shop and saw a mug with the caption, “Help me I’m starting to look my mother!” We bought one for each other and made a pledge not to let that happen! Well, at 60 when I look in the mirror I see my mother’s face staring back at me. Not such a bad thing since she passed away five years ago and I miss her every day. I also see wrinkles, lots of wrinkles. Instead of hating them I choose to believe they are signs of a life well-lived; a life full of laughter, friends, and a few sorrows. What about the tummy tuck idea? I confess I’ve thought about it. I know friends who’ve had one. Let’s just say, it hurts and I’m a chicken!
That brings me to the first part of the Active Boomer™ motto: Be Active. Stay Active. I know I can’t stop the aging process but I can do lots to control the effects of aging. I can choose to enjoy this next phase of my life. I can get up each morning, laugh at the body part screaming for Aspercreme, put on my walking shoes and Active Boomer t-shirt , take a walk, try to fit in some strength exercises, eat well and enjoy 60+ years of a life well lived.
Active Boomer ™ invites you to join us in this campaign to: Be Active. Stay Active. Embrace Aging.™
