I’ve been wanting to write a page about what an enriched boomer-senior living is really all about. A friend said “we know it when we live it,” but it is so much more. Important things for us to hold to. After a plethora of high school and university reunions, where the members of the graduating class who are able to attend grows smaller and smaller, we think a lot about how short our lives are and how blessed we are by those we have met, worked with, know, and aspire to. Because it is a time of our lives when we hold onto everything that can be treasured, even the simplest thing, because of its importance to our happiness and those around us. This is enriched boomer-senior living.
Lesson in Enrichment
I was about seven or eight when my mother decided to take me on a road trip to the mountains – ironically to where I now live. She was almost frantic to “arrive” at a place of great beauty. We were driving a back road along a lake, pine trees everywhere and wildflowers carpeting the ground. She stopped the car. “Get out, just get out of the car,” she demanded. “Now I want you to breathe deeply, slowly, and look, really look at everything around you.” She stood there for a long time, arms stretched out, deep breathing.” “This,” she said “is for all those days when it rains, when life is horrible. Fill yourself up with this beauty. Hold onto it.” It was a lesson in enrichment.
I think of that. Holding onto beauty. Filling ourselves with beauty and goodness of what is around us. The dictionary says that enriching is to improve the quality or value of something. As a boomer-senior, I would modify that a bit and say that it is the opportunity to recognize the value and quality in small things and large, and to give thanks for it. And to enjoy those values as well.
Improving is a learning process, which is why a commitment to learning is such an important part of an enriched boomer-senior life. As I have noted here, there is beauty to learning, to being imperfect and striving toward perfection. Trying something new, earning a living in a new way, savings in a new way, meeting new people in new ways – all this is a part of senior learning and enrichment. Compassion and care are a part of the learning process – we tend to lack both when we are young and striving, and only come to understand and value it when we age.
Give Thanks
At this age, we are far more prone to give thanks for our lives and the lives of those around us than we were when we were younger. We are prone to recognize the beauty in people and places, and in the smallest of things, and to give thanks.
Giving thanks is an important part of an enriched life. Giving thanks in every and any way and live it out however you can – helping others, doing unseen good things, all this is giving thanks. It is the pass-it-on mentality. A woman at the grocery store simply paid for a stranger’s groceries. And she thanked the stranger for the chance to do so. Being generous in act or spirit is something we can now afford, and it is a way to give thanks.
An enriched boomer-senior life is the chance to experience, to do what you haven’t been able to do before. To further explore a talent or to try out a new potential talent. To know you can do so without criticism from yourself or from others. You’re off the clock now, and experiencing the new is on your time. Enjoy it.
–morningmountainview
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