RealAge and an Epiphany

A former neighbor, Sebastian, stopped to say hello as I was pushing the mulching mower around the front yard yesterday. He and his wife invited us over for dinner about 30 years ago to meet his mother from Sicily. She didn't speak English, but people can gather and enjoy one another's company over ethnic food.

During Sebastian's visit, a little flash of clarity hit me. While He Who Must Be Obeyed and I were so terribly busy raising our own five children (BP-Before Pill), taking in needy children for periods of from four to 12 years, trying to get ourselves through the University before we turned 40, and working at our chosen professions; all of those years I always had a dream that when it was completed, there would be 'something wonderful' out there for us.

Up to yesterday, I felt the elusive 'something' was always out of reach, even after 12 years of retirement. Family demands continue their deadly grip; a one way thing; which is, of course, the Heart of Christianity, to quote Marcus Borg.

Sebastian's visit made something click in my head and a glimmer of the epiphany happened. Our life right now is the 'something wonderful,' this hour and today and tomorrow. How simple can that be? Why was it so hard to see? This is all there is and to flip that, this is everything it is! And it is Something Wonderful, sometimes big and sometimes very small...but it IS. Clinton was right, it is "the meaning of IS"

AND THEN...

I have always been a fool for those little tests on the Internet that are designed to tell you everything with 12 questions. Last night there were many more questions and the outcome was dismal. I had better keep my closet clean as it appears that I could slip over the edge any day now.

Seems tricky that I mow and mulch leaves, which I did twice this week, with one foot in the grave. My lifestyle and situational stress is doing me in before I am finished. I had better get busy with my Aunt Liz's biography. All of that work doesn't just jump into the computer by osmosis, no matter how close I keep the box full of letters, papers and photos to my computer. When I finish that task, the grim reaper can have his way with me, but not until I hold those sweet little books in my old arthritic hands.

The results of my RealAge test were "Calendar Age, 72.8, Difference +15.0, RealAge 87.9. If Mehmet Oz has his face on the home page it must be true. Alas.

I do feel like 87+ most days. I wonder how much stock I can take in this seemingly innocuous test? I got an email this morning with "just a few of the RealAge tools that can help me look and feel younger in as few as 90 days." Isn't that swell!