An epiphany

      An epiphany is a moment of sudden revelation or insight. Well, I had one of those today. In a conversation with my dear daughter we spoke on the serious matter of hurts, bad feelings, anxiety and other negative emotions brought on by interactions with others, others such as relatives, friends, acquaintances, representatives of companies via phone and so on, others who have left us feeling harmed.

      Following a stand off with a utility company representative about a bill that should not have been, I made a final decision. I will deal with the situation one more time with a supervisor and then let it go! If any other issues come up I will make my absolute best stab at resolving each and every problem before the month is up so I can begin a new month on a good footing, a clean slate so to speak, sprouting a positive attitude. The previous months issues will be put to rest. The point in all this is to save myself and others mental anguish and heart pain.
    
      A segment of the "let it go" philosophy goes like this.
          
            'If you want to be healthy morally, mentally and physically, just let it go.  Let go of the
            little annoyances of everyday life, the irritations and the petty vexations that cross your
            path daily. Don't take them up, nurse them, pet them or brood over them. They are not
            worth while. Let them go'.

With advanced age on us, we can certainly claim to have carried our share of hurts and harms from the past. I won't fool you or myself into believing I won't falter on this effort. This 'let it go' adage is a tough one to conform to and will require much trial and error.

         'Let go of that feeling of jealousy, envy, malice,
         let go all such thoughts. Sweep them out of your mind and you will
         be surprised what a cleansing, a rejuvenating effect it will have on you, physically and
         mentally. Let them all go, you house them at deadly risk'.

A good friend commented, 'who does all this anxiety hurt the most'.  Of course the answer is ourselves. We must attempt to keep our heart and other body parts clean of contaminants and other dangerous aging elements that at times put weight on our shoulders and hips.

With that said I wish you all a healthy and cheerful new month of September.

catching up on reading

With all the 'free time on my hands' (how does free time get to our hands, anyway), I'm exploring writers I would never have considered reading before.  George Carlin, humorist, author, satirist is one case in point, an author I pooh-poohed because of his profanity and over the edge approach. He comments on phrases like the one above and puts a Carlin spin on it.  Ever wonder about such idioms like 'you take the cake','the greatest thing since sliced bread', and so on? He expounds on these freaky sayings and brings on a laugh.

I have shied away from some poetry, especially old English bards, Wordsworth, Keats, Coolridge and other dead writers, Burns, James, Thomas due to inability to get the cadence of the writing. I will attempt to make some understanding out of their writing because it exists, has import and I have the time.

It is a common thought that as we age we get more set in our ways and we tend not to let in new ideas. With hopes of trying to dispel this myth and others I will continue along this vein and let you know what happens next. Let's all attempt to do the same - take a myth and give it a good dispelling. Then let me know what happens next.

Eating out

We're retired. With all the free time on our hands and staunch promises we made to ourselves to do some home cooking, we have finally arrived at the stage of 'eating out' for both socialability, as well as sustenance.  This is a very big Florida event, but other places have this event going on.

When we arrive at our eating location, the first line of questioning of the server has to do with, do you offer a senior discount?  This is a very honorable question since it has much to do with looking for the ultimate bargain.

We might next proceed to ask all sorts of other questions some having to do with food, such as, can I have large napkins, is the bun buttered, do you have whole wheat bread, are there extra pickles, followed by statements such as, I have diabetes and can't have sugar or salt or whatever goes with our state of health.

The servers are now saddled with far too much information on us. But that doesn't deter us seniors. We go into personal mode and begin to fire questions at them about their personal lives, such as, do you have children, have you seen the latest Robert Downey movie, do you like working here?

Our own children haven't been around enough because they live a distance away or are busy working and we need to establish some close parent/child relationship with someone. We have chosen the youth who are employed at the restaurants we frequent.

Now, this entry might sound like a knock against retired seniors when in fact it is a true assessment of what was overheard at a number of restaurants during all feeding hours and days of the week.  Part of the reason I am such an expert at reporting this information has to do with my own involvement. Yes, at times the person I am referring to in this blog would be me, and my eating partners and certainly many, many others at all eating times and days of the week.

Now, about the servers, some have warmed nicely to the barrage of questions and others have maintained a professional stance. For the most part I would judge that fun was had by both servers and servees.

Bon apetite, all you retired seniors, see you at the eating establishments.