Eighty

"My father, who lived to ninety-four, often said that the eighties had been one of the most enjoyable decades of his life. He felt, as I begin to feel, not a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective. One has had a long experience of life, not only one's own life, but others' too. One has seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts, revolutions and wars, great achievements and deep ambiguities. One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts. One is more conscious of transience and, perhaps, of beauty. At eighty, one can take a long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was forty or sixty. I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together. I am looking forward to being eighty." 

 - Oliver Sacks 

Gratitude

Ok, I needed this.  Had to deal with a grumpy man, who is 80 (I know because he told me several times that was why I didn't produce a hand surgeon out of thin air to see him, and that meant I obviously wanted him to just die.)  Instead I spoke like I was his grandma, reflecting back his platitudes to me - "Phone works two ways, you know!"

"Yes, I know. So instead of driving four hours here*, check your mailbox and call before you come. Phone works both ways, as you say." Eventually I just got chipper, "See you on the 14th!" He snarled and stormed off. My schedulers and I laid bets that he would show up anyway. 

So, aging doesn't automatically bring wisdom.  It offers the opportunity, and it's up to each of us to reach out and grasp it.

This spring I am reclaiming some of the Previous Owner's ill conceived patio for the garden.  It gets so much morning and midday sun, when the back of the garden gets very little sun due to property line junk trees. A baking patio and a cold dark garden is the wrong way round.  So I will take up the pavers, move them to the car-turnaround area that gets so muddy.  For the garden extension, put down cardboard and compost and plant beets and parsley

*2 hours, more like. Still significant, but not 4.