Tuesday, July 8, 2014

" Aging By The Book "



This past weekend we experienced  in the Maritimes, a tropical storm, the remnants of Hurricane Arthur, a name that sure sounds innocuous enough, but it packed quite a wallop, and there are still many throughout Nova Scotia and New Brunswick without power, due to downed power lines as a result of numerous fallen trees.

The storm arrived July 4th weekend and at the same time a group of life long friends, and myself, got together for our annual WW ( Women's Weekend ). Fortunately where we had our weekend we did not loose power. We ate, laughed, danced, and had a great time engaging in some heart to heart conversations, on a range of subjects about art, creativity, kids and grand kids etc and generally got caught up on where we are in our lives. I would describe it as relating to each other, our present life stories. There was an overall focus on life long learning, and we shared with one another what  books we have been reading.



Getting together with old friends is a very satisfying thing to do, because we know one another's story, and it is a good thing to stay in touch, because we can catch up, reestablish our connections, and bonds of friendship, and even meet new friends, these all help to reinforce who we are, and it all gives us a sense of belonging. Our shared life stories I think, help us to understand who we are, and the aging process.

One of my friends gave everyone of the women a gift of copied original art works in the form of magnets in envelopes with a quotes. The quote on my envelope was from the poet Emily Dickinson.

" We never know how high we are 
     Till we are called to rise;
   And then, if we are true to plan,
   Our statures touch the skies. "

Yesterday I heard a rebroadcast of the Ideas program, Aging By The Book  which I thought was a very poignant, inspiring, and relevant to me and my life long friends, that I have know for so many years.


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