The Best of Aging Abundantly, Volume One – Now Available

Writing is one thing! Converting my writing to an e-book and publishing  is another ball of wax! It used to be easier. When I published Caring for Mom on Lulu, what seems to be eons ago, it went very smoothly. Now there are so many options, and each has its own complexities, and everything constantly changes. What one learns one time, doesn’t apply the next. Since I’m a one-woman show, it’s always a bit of an experiment in trial and error.

That being said, I think my first collection of blog posts is ready to download. If you run into any problems, please let me know!

VOLUME TWO is on the horizon. I’m debating about a paperback version. Your feedback will be appreciated.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Simplifying

I have written many, many words over the years on the value of simplicity. Living it is a whole other story! I don’t have a problem so much with the accumulation of material goods. What I have a problem with is creating in ever-widening circles to the point where I am no longer the least bit in control of what I’ve created! Perhaps that’s an oxymoron, anyway, but in an attempt to keep my sanity and my focus I am going to once again attempt to combine my efforts in one location. When I set up the Aging Abundantly website I encouraged readers to move on over there, but fans of WordPress are hooked into the flow and dissemination process and many of you never made the switch.  I’m going to try again. Please take a moment to visit the Aging Abundantly website and sign up to receive posts. If you have any question, or run into a problem, let me know. I appreciate you and I don’t want to lose contact!

I have collected all of my blogs from the past five plus years and am in the process of putting them in an e-book so that they will be more easily accessible. The first volume will be available in the next week or so for a nominal fee. The blogs will remain here for a time and accessible free of charge. The e-book version just makes it easier to read at your convenience.  I will also keep this blog open for re-blogging. There are so many wonderful bloggers out there that I think you might enjoy as well. All of my own writing, however, will take place on my website and from time to time on the ManifestMe blog where I write about my healing journey.

I also have been writing for iSeniorSolutions.com on caregiving and aging.  Here are a few of my most recent posts.

Help! I Feel Trapped Caring for My Aging Mother

After a Parent Dies – Family Dynamics

Family Caregiving Dynamics

 

The Power of Our Imagination

Body Image and the Never Ending Quest for Perfection

Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874 – 1939) – Girl with Earrings

I was nudged out of my comfort zone last week when I read a post by a 37-year-old blogger which she titled We Hate Our Bodies and It’s Not Our Fault.  This is my response: Do You Hate Your Body?  This was a hot topic for me a decade ago and it still can rear its ugly head now and again.  In 2012 I wrote an article for HuffPost on the issue of aging and physical appearance that’s worth reviving:  Keeping Up Appearances: Who Would We Be if We Quit Talking About Aging.  That same year Women at War with Their Bodies appeared on my blog. I’ve worked hard to wrestle my demons into submission, but it’s an issue that we cannot let rest, and the painful memories will likely never go away completely and I’m glad they won’t. We need reminders, because we must take action to share our widening perspectives further until they reach every man and woman alive. Body image is a core issue of self-esteem for women and without solid self-esteem one cannot stretch one’s wings and fly. And, we were all meant to fly.

Most of us have fallen victim to cultural expectations perpetrated by the masses and by cruel and unwitting individuals. We have spent too many years denigrating and dissecting a vital and valuable part of who we are. We have not loved our beloved companion as she was meant to be loved. Aging has its advantages once again in this arena. I found that it allowed me to let go of the fantasy that I could always diet tomorrow, or change tomorrow, or that I had the power to change things about myself that I did not like given enough time.  It forced me to “get real”.

Coming face to face with our mortality nudges us toward acceptance at a far more rapid pace. When we come to understand how well our body has served us in spite of how much we have  hated and abused it, we can move toward gratitude and respect and put down our armor. Acceptance is the first step in, what may be for some, the long journey of setting down this burden.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her audio book The Joyous Body: Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype (The Dangerous Old Woman) expresses so beautifully what I have come to believe to is the gift of our physical nature. She shares a viewpoint that I did not acquire from my family of origin or from our culture. I highly recommend it to anyone who is struggling with body image issues, regardless of age.

Backwards Thinking

The sun streamed through the kitchen window this morning, it’s warm inviting tendrils wrapping themselves around me like a lost lover. The relief I felt, the fullness of my appreciation for what I had been missing and the cavernous desire to take in as much of its energy as I could was  not dissimilar to the way I felt when my boys returned home after their first weekend camping trip, or my husband from a business trip. Continue