This year, no resolutions. Plans only get sidetracked. And besides, there’s too much life out there to limit myself to a random collection of intentions. Explore. Challenge. Learn. Repeat. That’s my mantra for 2018. I want this to be a year of moving forward. A year overflowing with discoveries, both internal and external. A year with positive lessons sprinkled throughout.
When I look back and realize I’ve been retired for almost two years, I just shake my greying head. It’s no lie: time does move faster when you age. Which means you just have to try and pack in twice the amount of adventures. With 62 peeking around the corner, I can barely believe I’m an adult, never mind an older adult. I refuse to act 62 though. That’s for boring people. I plan to keep riding the carousel and making angels in the snow.
I recently discovered (or at least admitted) that as I age, I’ve become more fearful of certain things. Like driving to places I’ve never been in the dark. And I’m not talking long distances, I’m talking to North Vancouver and Coquitlam. I don’t know what this fear is about, but there it is. And this, from someone who drove across Canada five times in the 1970s in a Datsun 210, packed with all my worldly possessions, while smoking a cigarette, drinking coffee and driving a standard transmission. I was much younger and stupider then. I did not know what evil lurked outside my cozy cosmos.
This is not to say that I’m now a hot, paranoid mess. I’m just more acutely aware of the possibilities that exist out there. There is much that lies beyond my realm of cognition, but I’m no Pollyanna. Or as we oldies like to say: “I’ve been around the block a few times.”
In my defense, (and to those who laugh at my driving fears), I would happily get up and speak in front of 300 strangers. But drive to Coquitlam – hell no! So, there you have it: irrational fear at its ugliest. It reminds me of the saying: “Most people would rather die than speak in public.” Which means that you’d rather be lying in the box than giving the eulogy.
Aging comes with its own unique set of challenges, for sure. Many of them physical, many of them emotional. I think the point is to keep evolving and challenging ourselves, despite the setbacks that aging throws our way. Got bad knees? Wear a brace and take that trip anyway. Afraid of driving to Coquitlam in the dark? Try driving there in the daytime instead.
Whatever the challenge, pretend you’re Gal Gadot and be the best Wonder Woman you can be!
Now if I can just take my own advice….
Shelley Civkin, the retired “face of Richmond,” was a librarian and communications officer at Richmond Public Library for nearly 30 years and an author of a weekly book review column for 17 years.
