I’ve been trying to finish the first draft of a new book I hope to get out by October 31 – Halloween seems appropriate since the book is entitled “Aging Fearlessly.”  But I feel like a complete fraud because I’m not following my own advice and the great unknown has me quivering in my fuzzy house slippers and my favorite tee shirt which proclaims “Aging is the New Black.”

There’s a magnet on my refrigerator door which reads “Put on your big girl panties and deal with it.” I can’t tell you how many times that silly little reminder to grow up and face my challenges has kept me from jumping off the nearest cliff.  (Thank goodness we don’t have many cliffs in this neck of the woods.)

Anyhow, today I think I’m ready to do battle with the ravages of time  and squeeze every ounce of joy and satisfaction from every minute of every day.  I’m determined to fill up that half empty glass and be open to whatever twists and turns this road takes us on.. That means we’ve got to stop using Hope and replace it with Action..

I’ve got my tools which include a great support group – my closet friends – who are all aging way behind schedule (at least we think wew are).  We are paying more attention to our accruing limitations and figuring out how to work around them.  If nothing else, we’ve learned to laugh at the things that trip us up – memory loss, stiff joints and a plethora of other age-related health problems which have begun to seep into our fortress and crack the masonry.  I’ve always maintained that aging can be a barrel of fun as long as you have someone to do it with.

We’ve started a new scaled-back bucket list that includes hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail rather than the whole 2,000 miles.  We are also going to get out, be, do and experience all the wonders of living so long, so gloriously and yet so messily at the same time. We will celebrate anything and everything. 

We may even go a little wild – instead of dancing at the Pony (a strip joint up on Highway 45) we will buy new lipsticks with names like “Up the Ante”, “Savage Stain” and anything by Wet n’ Wild.