cheerfulmonk.com

I have to admit, I wouldn’t like my physical therapist and my doctor telling me I’m not old. I’m more like Betty White:

If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)

…if one is lucky enough to be blessed with good health, growing older shouldn’t be something we complain about. It’s not a surprise, we knew it was coming. Make the most of it.

Sure, you may not be as fast on your feet and the image in the mirror may be a little disappointing, but if you’re still functioning and not in pain, gratitude should be the name of the game.
….
Somewhere along the line there’s a breaking point, where you go from not discussing how old you are to bragging about it. I have never lied about my age but these days I seem to work it into the conversation at the drop of a hat. Please, stop me before I get to the point of “Hi, I’m Betty White! I’m 89 years old.”
—- Betty White, If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)

So I’m grateful in a few weeks I can say,

Hi, I’m Cheerful Monk! I’m 85 years old.

So I like WebwWiseWoman’s comment on yesterday’s post:

Age denial is everywhere. I hate when so very many announce birthdays as “80 years young” One recently had the oldest resident here being labelled in the newspaper “109 years young!”
No my pet, you are old, very old, celebrate that, never deny it when so many don’t get the privilege of being called “old”
Proudly and gratefully old.
XO
WWW

Thanks, WWW!

December 2, 2024

I sent some friends an article about the repercussions of breaking a hip and added how lucky I was to recover without surgery. My sister-in-law answered,

So glad it was better for you!
We’re all on the downward path anyway, so let’s not hurry it along.

I love it! It made my week.

When Andy had his annual physical last week he told our doctor that he figured he would be old in a couple of months when he turned 90. She said he wouldn’t be old until he was 98. My physical therapist through Visiting Nursing had also said he wouldn’t be old at 90, it wouldn’t be until he was 95. We’re skeptical of both those estimates!

December 1. 2024

gocomics.com/theothercoast

Do you ever think about a fulfilled life? If so, what do you think the secret is? Kaitlin and Torben’s Zoe would agree with the guru. And I’ve already talked about my view in About Cheerful Monk.

November 30, 2024

I think they’re cute. They make me smile.

November 29, 2024

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

I hope you all have (or had) a wonderful day.

It was just the two of us here, but I’m always grateful for my connection with friends and family.

I’m also especially grateful for my apartment and that Andy and I have managed to keep our lifestyle this long. We don’t take that for granted. In September I wrote that I was going to start keeping it neat all the time instead of treating it as a beloved play pen that I could straighten up whenever I chose. It’s been over two months now, and that change has stuck.

I’m still having Merry Maids come in every other week to clean, and I have plenty of time for the things I love to do.

The other thing I’m grateful for is that Andy and I bought lifetime ambulance service. The two rides, first to the local hospital, the second to the Santa Fe to the hospital that would have treated my broken hip, should have been covered by Medicare. But my summary of claims for that time period didn’t say anything about ambulance rides. So I phoned the billing copany and told them that. The agent suggested I talk to Medicare. Nope, couldn’t happen. I had no claim number. They wouldn’t know what I was talking about… the billing company should resubmit the claim. The agent said they couldn’t do that. Say what? It happens all the time when something falls in crack. I was curious and was tempted to pursue it further, but decided not to spend time on it. I gave them my MASA Global number as third-party insurers, wrote a note about the transaction on the bill and will wait until I hear from them again to find out if there is anything more I can do.

We bought the ambulance insurance because if something happens to Andy up on the land it would be extremely expensive to get him emergency service and transportation. We didn’t expect me to be the one to use it, but it should save a lot of hassle now. I will let you know!

Again, Happy Thanksgiving!

November 28. 2024

etsy.com

I posted this picture early last year, and as much as it makes me laugh, it doesn’t completely apply to me. I’ve been working on patience for years, and I’ve had plenty of technical problems to practice on. So yesterday when I received a big bill for the ambulances when I broke my hip four months ago, I didn’t do too badly. The billing department was already closed for the day but I spent about an hour or so figuring out what the problem was. I will phone them today…we shouldn’t owe anything. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

At least the bill came during the week. Usually bills like this come on Friday, and I have to wait the whole weekend to contact anyone.

November 27, 2024

From the Reader’s Digest:

“Go to bed, you’ll feel better in the morning” is the human version of “Turn it off and turn it back on again.”

How true!

November 26, 2024

I was delighted when I came across this quote yesterday,

It is a help towards sanity and calm judgment to acquire the habit of seeing contemporary events in their historical setting, and of imagining them as they will appear when they are in the past.
—Bertrand Russell

I do that a lot, especially trying to guess how people a hundred years from now would describe this period. It does help put things into perspective.

Another of his quotes is,

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

He was talking about how children are so curious and excited by life but most adults lose that capacity. We can regain it if need be. I think that’s especially true with the internet. We can explore the world now without even leaving home.

And, of course, there are these two Mary Oliver quotes that I’ve mentioned before.

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world….

and,

Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

As I’ve written, my version is,

Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing.
Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.

What do you think?

November 25, 2024

The snow has melted enough that Andy found his lost phone… it still turns on and seems to be fine. We’ll keep it as a spare instead of switching back to it, but it’s nice to know where it was.

November 24, 2024

November 23, 2024