Two Old Women

Several years ago, my dearest BFF loaned me this book:

She had read it, and in the two old women saw the two of us, compadres to the end. We easily identified ourselves in the story, and the similarities to our real life friendship. With only each other, we could conquer everything- the elements; family who abandoned us; wolves, even.

Recently, I re-read the book again, and found a completely different story. Oh, I still believe that with the help of my precious friend I can conquer many things. But the story of the two old women, abandoned by their tribe when resources became scarce, resonated greatly with a different tune now.

As we age, we begin to receive special considerations and respect for our age. When the young ones do things for us-cook, clean, run errands, bring gifts- we feel loved, cherished, and honored as senior members of the tribe.

But as the old women found out, too much of letting others 'honor' them led to forgetting many subsistence and self-sufficiency skills, which had to be painfully dredged from memory to survive when they were left on their own.

As the women struggled to find food and shelter, they became more and more resilient, more aware, more capable, more confident, and less frail, weak, or old-feeling.

This made me realize that I can not let age or 'this stage of life' rob me of my independence, my abilities, my energy, or my drive. The best way to nurture and protect those properties will be to stay as active as I possibly can, both mentally and physically.

All the more reason now to get out and hike, bike, kayak, canoe, backpack, snorkel, rollerblade, beat the hubby at Scrabble, and ~shudder~ think about skydiving. Old age is going to have to look very hard to find me.

        Happy Trails, and may finding adventure never grow old!