Change is a fact of life….
Remember when you were in your teens or 20’s and looked forward to the time when you could leave home and be independent–no longer under your parents’ roof but under your own roof? Remember how excited you were at the prospect of building a new life?
Remember how after you did it, reality set in? There was rent to pay, food to buy, laundry to do and other priorities to juggle. But you did it. You recognized that with new-found freedom came responsibility.
You worked, you bought a house, you raised a family, you retired from work, your children left home….You went through a series of transitions from one phase of life to another. After a while, you accepted that life is full of change, just as it is full of growth.
And as you managed these transitions, you realized life is much like a river; sometimes the water is calm and you can see yourself reflected clearly. Other times you find yourself in white water and you are fighting to survive.
Someone once said, “Old age is not for sissies”. It requires strength, courage and fortitude to weather the storms, to cope with an aging body, and to enjoy the good weather when it comes.
You have learned to find joy everywhere and often in the little things. A flower blooming, a child smiling, the color of an autumn leaf, the pristine purity of the first snowfall….You may have aches and pains but you know you’re not the only one. You have friends and family and a lot of good memories. There is so much to be grateful for.
If you’ve found this site, you’re probably starting to think about another transition. Maybe the home you’ve loved all these years is becoming too much to look after. Maybe a condo or apartment would be better. Maybe it would be nice to live in a place where someone else makes the meals and does the laundry.
There are a lot of options to consider. Sometimes it seems like it’s too much to think about and really you don’t want to leave home. So you put the decision off to another day and think “there will be enough time for that”. Suddenly life intervenes; a crisis occurs; and you are forced to make a decision–perhaps not the best one. Full of regret, you think: “If only I had considered these things earlier, I could have made a better choice.”