HAPPY NEW YEAR!
WHAT I BROUGHT TO THE NEW YEAR
I’ve stepped across the threshold of another year. I came into this year, 2025, approaching my 78th biological birthday. I celebrated my 39th spiritual birthday, one day at a time. I did bring some baggage of anxiety and serious concern for the social, political, and meteorological climate in our society. But I also have an incredible tool kit of resources ( more on that in another blog) which reminds me I’m doing OK. I possess an incredible amount of integrity, compassion, and courage to have a positively brilliant year.
AGING
I’m reminded each morning as I say “Hey, GOOD morning” to that face in the mirror, that I’m aging.
Grey hair √
Loss of muscle tone√
Nocturnal bathroom trips √
Making friends with multiple medical professionals √
And there are a “few” quirky aging things that no one tells you will happen.
- The little zappy nerve pains in legs. Ouch!
- The uncalled for cramping of toes as the big toe lifts up in its own individual hitch-hike position. What’s with that?
- Thinning hair. On one side only.
- Drooping of eyelids. Several medical professionals inform me fixing this is not covered by surgical insurance because they are “not enough to medically impede accepted eyesight.”
- “Laugh lines” not only around my mouth. Puhleeze.
Several years ago I shared a (then) humorous story at Odyssey Storytelling about the loss of my upper lip. Update: When I grin, that upper lip is now completely gone. My face at rest looks like an alarmed prairie dog.
I AM DOING OK
I heed the advice, not only of a former dance teacher to keep a semi-smile on my face, but also the gentle suggestions of meditation and spiritual gurus to “hold that pleasant thought and it will manifest on your face.”
You know what? I’m vertical. I’m “on this side of the dirt” as bro-in-law says. I play a pretty good game of tennis, and pickleball. I get a lump in my throat when I hear Josh Groban sing “The First Noel.” I just have to get up and dance for “Do You Wanna Funk?” I stop and just stare when the sunrise is pink, purple, and then blue. I am aging, aka saging ( Not a typo. Saging- what a sage (wise elder) does). Also I have a reciprocal relationship of love and respect with more than a handful of people. We’re reaching a critical mass of believers in kindness.
So it’s all ok.
My friend RC says she and her partner are happy to be “upright” each day. I like that. It has a sturdy ring of character. All systems GO.
Happy New Year!
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She retired after 30 years of teaching, and semi-retired from coaching, and professional editing. Founder of the Eastside Tucson Writing Room based in Tucson AZ, she’s posted 100s of blogs, and is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, teaching about the power of words, gather writers together, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys teaching, speaking, and storytelling at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, Tucson Tellers of Tales Center for Spiritual Living Tucson, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.