Kansas Senior Press Service Weekly Newsletters Kansas Senior Press Service Weekly Newsletters By Joann Williams
Kansas Senior Press Service
It happens. Like it or not, we all get older. It’s something we learn to accept, sometimes reluctantly, although the major milestones never bothered me much — not 30, not 40 or more.
Now I’ve reached the time in my life when each year is a milestone, but it’s not the aging that bothers me. It’s the incidentals.
As a young mother, like countless mothers before me, I never gave a second thought to doing without material things so my kids could have more. I usually bought my wardrobe off the sales rack at the end of the season — sensible, generic things that wouldn’t be out of style the next year.
I remembered my father’s words of wisdom: “You can only spend your money once. Either use it to buy a lot of little things, or save it and buy something big.”
He lived by his words, sometimes to the extreme. He was fond of saying, “It’s a whole lot more fun to have money and pretend you don’t, than to act like you have money when you really have none.”
Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel deprived when I passed up trendy platforms because my daughter needed cheerleading shoes. Likewise, my skirt lengths didn’t change from mini to maxi, but stayed at a happy medium. Nor did I switch from straight-legs to flares and back again. Throughout it all, I knew my day would come eventually. Some day the kids would be grown and I’d have money to spend on myself. I could look at something besides sales racks, and if I wanted a fashionable outfit, I would buy it.
Well, that day has come. My kids are responsible for their own necessities and I’m still a member of the workforce, meaning I can occasionally go to exclusive stores to enrich my wardrobe, except for one minor fact: The latest styles don’t do much for my middle-aged spread. Now that I can afford to buy something nice for myself, my body doesn’t see the need to cooperate. These styles are for young, skinny people. No one over size 8 should attempt to wear them. The rest of us look like we should be hiding behind a tree. A redwood tree. Chic we are not.
To complicate matters, we were finally able to install a pool/hot tub in our back yard a few years ago. The grandkids love it. But I only go out after dark, and never when we have company. Who wants to see a blimp in a bikini (or even a one-piece)?
Weight was never a problem in my youth. Lose a few pounds? Abstain from sweets or fried foods and the pounds would roll off. Now I can starve myself and still gain. Look at a piece of pecan pie, add five pounds. Where’s the justice?
I’ve never felt that life passed me by, because I’ve lived it to the fullest. Now I must master the art of growing older with grace, not regret. I think the easiest way is to adopt a who-cares attitude.
But now I’m having second thoughts. We’re planning a reunion, and suddenly this excess weight matters just a little. I’m determined. I can do it, if I start immediately.
But just as I wrote that, my husband, God love him, walked in the door carrying a bulging bag from KFC.
“I thought I’d save you from cooking tonight,” he smiled.
Sure, why not? It was so considerate of him. Besides, I’m undoubtedly not the only alumna who’s gained in recent years. Right?
What’s that saying? God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Let’s see, where did I hide that box of Russell Stover’s?
Copyright 2007 by Joann Williams, a paralegal in Overland Park and a former health care lobbyist.
By Fran Maxwell
Kansas Senior Press Service
It’s wintertime. The wisest of birds have long departed for their southern homes. Their songs, screeches and caws have left the world in an unnatural stillness. Only the most stout-hearted of birds stay on to brave nature’s cruel thrusts of relentless chill and sleet. Their summer hunting grounds have been buried in snow. Solid ice has coated the tree bark that harbors tasty insects.
At midnight, the lustrous moon makes voyages across blackened skies. Other nights it hides behind gray mists, ghostly and sad, provoking haunting tales.
As on a whim, temperatures rise and fall. Snow melts and then freezes again. Winds blow round and down sooty chimneys, circling housetops and trees, whistling eerily. Newspapers report the depth of snow. Small towns become isolated.
Famished mice and deer leave tell-tale prints as they forage through the night. Frost forms into silver crusts to outline housetops, mail boxes, church steeples. Even deep, encrusted ruts of car tires look beautiful.
Lucky the hibernating bear and groundhog, warm and insensible to Jack Frost’s frigid pranks. Unhappy the bedraggled fox and wolverine, desperately foraging for food for themselves and their swollen-bellied mates, who lie beneath bush and fallen boughs awaiting birthing time.
For the people, winter is a time for great bonfires and bountiful feasts. Children dream wonderland dreams, fashion snowmen, build snow forts.
And when the sun is tired of winter and remembers spring, when blossoms thrive, it thaws the snow and rivers flow. Then earth is once again alive.
Fran Maxwell is a free-lance writer from Lenexa.
By
Kansas Senior Press Service
More than three million Americans, and nearly 70 million people worldwide, have glaucoma. Experts estimate that half of them don’t know they have it. With a rapidly aging population, an epidemic of blindness is looming — if we don’t raise awareness about the importance of regular eye examinations to preserve vision.
People with a higher-than-average risk of getting the disease include:
Glaucoma is an eye disease in which the sight nerve, or optic nerve, is damaged over time. In most cases, the normal fluid pressure inside the eye rises. This rise in pressure is caused by reduced drainage out of the eye. Over time, the optic nerve is damaged. Sometime the pressure does not rise but the nerve tissue slowly starves from poor blood circulation and lack of essential nutrients. The result is damaged nerve tissue.
The best way to protect your sight from glaucoma is to get a comprehensive eye examination annually. For more information, consult your eye care professional or your local public health department.
Source: The Glaucoma Research Foundation
By
Kansas Senior Press Service
Information provided by the Johnson County Public Health Department.
These articles are also available electronically at the Center on Aging Website: http://www2.kumc.edu/coa/Senior_Press_Article/Topic_Index.htm