Tag: lifestyle

The Daily EO: April 23rd, 2013

I wasn’t alive when they said “Never trust anyone over 30”.   Back in the 60s anything went – right?  I don’t know, but my university days were much different.  Yeah, if I wanted to I could have found any mind-bending drug I wanted or I could have taken 8 years to get an undergrad degree.  I met some of those types.  But I also met a lot of people who really thought they knew what it was all about.   In my 20s, I knew what it was all about.  I was never going to have to “find myself”.  I wasn’t going to sit around and “expand my consciousness.”    People like that were flakes.   I was firmly within the straight and narrow and happy to be there.

There is a belief that as we get older we get set in our ways.  Less able to learn new things and accept new ways of thinking.  I don’t believe that now that I am getting older.  I think I am less certain of what it is all about than I was in my 20s. I am more open to thinking that perhaps I don’t know everything, that perhaps following all the rules in the mainstream world may not work for me or for someone else.  I guess I am more willing to say Perhaps.

My friend is trying to find her way right now.  And 20 years ago – when I met said friend – I would have rolled my eyes at her and said “Seriously!  Angels?  Spirits?  Breathing?  Come one!  Pull yourself together!  ”  But now, I think “Well, who am I to know?  If it is working for her (and others) then well . .hmmm. . . Maybe there is something there.”  Maybe it is me who is missing out in living my life to the fullest by not partaking in as many schools of thought and methods of introspection as I could?  I too have had to search for my path, spending long days wondering how could things have gone so wrong if I had done everything right?

Last year I tackled religion and spirituality in this blog on Good Friday.  In rereading today, I still think there is more to out there than we can understand, truth that we choose to see to the best of our ability coloured with our bias and perception.  I certainly didn’t begin my adulthood with openness, and while I am certainly opinionated on things like wedding etiquette, but now I am willing to say “Perhaps” on may other things.

I guess that is the wisdom that my mother told me about.

We should really start out with it.

April 23rd, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  Find your way your way.

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The Daily EO: February 10th, 2013

We were invited to dinner at very old friend’s tonight.  I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous – not that it was a stressful thing, but I have some hang-ups, and dinner parties are one of them.  I planned 2 days in advance what to wear, racked my brains for tidbits of information about their lives and children, and generally spent more time thinking about it than a normal person would.

That’s okay – I have hang ups, and I have learned to deal with them.  But when I am asked what type of wines I prefer so the courses can be properly matched to spirits, I start to worry that my mother’s etiquette training didn’t stick.

Dinner was lovely (I used the correct forks)- and when I say old friends, I mean old.  Because one of them used to babysit me, and I attended their wedding – 30 years ago when I was 9.  So, it’s weird and it must be to strange for them to me all grown up – close enough in age now that we could be friends.

The conversation ran from wine, Aspberger’s syndrome, cabinet making, veganism, weddings, dentistry, lay-outs of emergency rooms, travel, law and many other things.   And driving home I found myself realizing that I could hold intelligent conversations – with personal experiences – on a host of topics.

The food was great, the wines matches perfectly and dessert was a cheese tray.

February 10th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  20 years ago there were no fine lines around my eyes, but perhaps there is something to this “age and wisdom” thing.